D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Monday nominated Pamela Smith to serve as chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, tapping the former chief of the U.S. Park Police and current ordained minister to replace former chief Robert Contee at a time when crime is up in the city and the department continues facing challenges retaining and recruiting officers. If confirmed by the D.C. Council, Smith, 55, would become only the second woman to lead MPD — and the first Black woman to do so.

“Chief Smith has a distinguished 25-year career in law enforcement. She knows Washington, D.C. She knows MPD. She knows policing. And she understands very well the network of law enforcement and public safety teams that work to keep Washington, D.C., stay safe,” said Bowser, speaking at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. “She knows what the landscape is in D.C. right now. She is familiar with what’s working at MPD and where we will all work together to do more and better. And she is ready to start on day one.”

Smith, an Arkansas native who now lives in Ward 8, started her career in public service as a social worker and corrections officer in New York City. She eventually joined the Park Police — the force of some 500 officers that polices federal park lands in cities like D.C. and New York — in 1998 as a patrol officer in San Francisco, eventually moving to New York and later outside Atlanta before rising to become the first Black chief in the department’s history in 2021.

In remarks after being introduced by Bowser, Smith said she was raised in a troubled household where both her parents were addicted to drugs, eventually landing her in the foster care system.

“These experience have shaped me and molded me into the woman that you see standing before you today,” she said. “I have a message for young women who are watching this today, no matter where you come from. No matter your challenges that you face or the adversity that is in your way, if you choose to serve in law enforcement or any other career, you’ll become an integral part of any community. I stand here today as someone who as a child, I had no hopes. I had no dreams. They were far beyond my reach. But I believe that all things are possible.”

Smith’s nomination comes after what D.C. officials say was “tremendous” internal and external interest for MPD’s top leadership role, which opened up when Contee announced earlier this year that he was retiring and taking a senior-level position with the FBI. It also comes as the city’s public safety agencies remain in flux after the unexpected death of Linda Harllee Harper, the director of the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and the Office of Gun Violence Prevention; and ongoing issues with the Department of Forensic Services and the Office of Unified Communications, which handles 911 dispatching. In addition, MPD has roughly 500 fewer officers than it did before the pandemic, testing its ability to respond to rising gun violence and homicides.

As of Monday, violent crime is up 36% over the period last year, and homicides are up 18%. Last week the D.C. Council passed emergency legislation to address what Bowser said were some of the drivers of the uptick in crime, with a particular emphasis on expanding pre-trial detention for people accused of violent crimes.

“As a community, we must tackle the violent crime issues that we are experiencing in the District,” said Smith. “The community wants the police to be the police and do so in a constitutional, safe, and respectful manner. Make no mistake about it: I will be laser-focused to ensure that we do everything we can in this space. That includes targeting the deployment of our officers to areas impacted by crime. Engaging in long-term investigations focused on most violent individuals. Leveraging a whole-of-government approach. And I will take the lead in that space and ensuring the effective use of our police officers.”

Smith also said she wants to emphasize the practice of hot spot policing, or concentrating more resources on areas where crime is prevalent; continue with enhanced traffic enforcement; expand recruitment efforts; and address the spike in juvenile crime, especially youth involved with gun violence and as victims and perpetrators of homicides. Smith is also an ordained youth minister.

“I think there are a lot of programs that are out there in our parks and recreation [departments]. But I also think that there has to be some accountability for the parents, and I think that’s the part that we’re missing. Being able to really reach out, engage the parents just a little bit more to ensure that we can really build a good legion of leaders with our juveniles here in the District of Columbia,” she said.

As Smith moves through the confirmation process, critics could focus in on her leadership of the Park Police, during which the department settled a long-running legal battle over the 2017 police shooting of Bijan Ghaisar on the George Washington Parkway. (The shooting itself predated Smith’s rise to the department’s top spot.) There were also concerns raised last year about the poor state of the Park Police’s dispatch center in Washington. Smith did champion the adoption of body-worn cameras by Park Police officers.

She would also be rising to MPD’s highest ranks with the least experience in the department compared to those before her. In May 2022 she came to MPD as the department’s first equity officer, and in April of this year was elevated to serve as the assistant chief of the Homeland Security Bureau. Her three predecessors — Contee, Peter Newsham, and Cathy Lanier — all had more significant time within the department before ascending to chief.

But Smith said Monday that even in her short time at MPD, she had made it a point to launch “a listening session where I hit every single roll call, every district, internal, external, to ensure that I had a good compass of what was happening within the Metropolitan Police Department.”

Smith’s nomination will be taken up by the council in the coming months, but she has already gotten a vote of confidence from Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), who chairs the judiciary committee and will oversee the confirmation hearings.

“Acting Chief Smith brings to this nomination a wide breadth of experience from a diversity of jurisdictions across the country, as well as an intimate knowledge of our city, MPD, and our law enforcement officers,” said Pinto in a statement. “In my conversations with Acting Chief Smith, she has shared her commitment to building stronger community relationships, improving trust in and coordination with the police, and increasing officer recruitment and retention.”