D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser launched a national search to find a replacement for departing Police Chief Robert J. Contee III, with hopes of having someone in place by the time he leaves the post in early June. At the same time, Bowser and Contee said he would remain focused on his job until then. At a press conference Thursday, they announced a new crime-fighting initiative that will stretch over the summer months.

The raft of announcements came in the wake of Wednesday’s surprise news that Contee, a three-decade veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department, would be leaving for a high-level post at the FBI as assistant director of the office of partner engagement. Bowser expressed confidence the role of MPD chief would attract qualified candidates from across the country, and stressed that work on improving public safety would continue unabated.

Bowser also announced plans to host a citywide public safety summit in May 10 to “look very candidly at all parts of that system and ask ourselves what could we be doing differently to make sure we’re keeping our city safe.” She also plans to introduce legislation soon focused on “where we think there are gaps in the law that need to be addressed.” Beyond ongoing staffing challenges at MPD, Bowser has said in recent months that spikes in certain violent crimes are also attributed to shortcomings in other parts of the public safety “ecosystem,” and has cited concerns with specific measures passed by the D.C. Council that she says have complicated police officers’ jobs.

More immediately, and as they have in years past, Bowser and Contee announced a new police deployment initiative to help address crime as the weather warms and to respond to an uptick in violent crime and homicides, which are 16% higher than they were at the same point last year. Contee said the initiative was developed in consultation with two criminologists at George Mason University, and would focus on a more significant public presence by officers in trouble spots.

“We are utilizing data to identify areas in our city most impacted by crime and tasking officers to spend time being problem solvers,” he said. “But this isn’t putting someone standing on the corner to deter crime or officers just writing tickets and making arrests. This is about officers getting out of their vehicles and engaging with the community by being problem solvers, talking with community members to identify issues, checking in with businesses and apartment complexes, reporting quality of life issues to 311.”

While MPD’s past seasonal crime-fighting initiatives would target specific areas with increased police presence, Contee said this new initiative would be applied citywide and employ data to allow police officers to more quickly adjust when they see an uptick in offenses in any specific place. He also said that even as MPD is working with fewer officers than it did in years past — it’s currently at just under 3,400 officers, almost 500 less than in 2020 — part of the new community policing initiative will focus on allowing officers to take time away from simply responding to calls for service.

“What I’m saying now is that we want to be very intentional about carving out time in their day where they are not running to a call to be able to actually focus in on a community,” he said.

Contee said he was confident the new initiative would lead to decreases in crime over the summer months, adding that D.C.’s crime rate at this point last year was higher than it was the year prior, but the city ended 2022 with a 10% decrease in homicides and 7% decline in overall violent crime.

Turning to his decision to retire from the top post at MPD, Contee said he felt like it was the right time for a transition — and that he hoped his move to the FBI would inspire kids in D.C. to start their own career in policing, the way he had when he joined the department in Nov. 1989 as a 17-year-old cadet.

“I have decided to make this move, in addition to it being for [me], to inspire young people all across our city. A kid from Carver Terrace to rise up to be the chief of police and now an assistant director of the FBI, that’s going to inspire some kids,” he said.

Contee said that the rise in crime that hit D.C. since the COVID-19 pandemic did not motivate the decision to leave MPD, but conceded that being police chief could impose a weight on any person that isn’t always sustainable.

“The job weighs on me every day. I mean, it weighs on everybody,” he said. “If I never have to hear another parent who lost their child scream, I’m OK with that because it pierces my heart. The reason that there’s an average two- to five-year tenure for a major city chief is that you carry the weight of the world, the weight of the city on your shoulders.”

As to who will succeed Contee, Bowser said she would consider existing commanders within MPD; the last three police chiefs have come from within the ranks. But she also said she expected candidates from across the country to be considered.

“This is a unique department unlike any other in the United States,” she said. “If history is any indicator, we will have a lot of interest in this job.”

In related news, on Thursday Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1) introduced a bill that would increase the pay of police cadets and increase their age of eligibility from the current 24 to 33. Nadeau said in a press release that this could help attract more candidates to become cadets and eventually police officers.