001website Council Channel 13 the DC Council website and YouTube at CM Brook Pinto I am council member Brooke Pinto representing Ward 2 and chairwoman of the committee the purpose of today's Roundtable is to discuss the nomination of Pamela A Smith to the position of chief of the Metropolitan Police Department this nomination comes at a crucial time for MPD in the midst of a spike in both violent crime and property crime which is coin iding with a hiring and retention crisis for the Department meanwhile MPD is continuing to rebuild trust with communities in the aftermath of the murders of George Floyd along with similar local incidents including the murder of Karan hton Brown this all led to protests and calls for change including the establishment of the police Reform Commission and subsequent reforms I want to
002take a moment to address all of these Dynamics before getting into our Witness is today first as I'm sure many are aware yesterday we marked a grim milestone in the district surpassing 200 homicides in 2023 we have lost 2 N people to murder this year so far alone this is the third year in a row that we've exceeded 200 homicides in a given year and the first time in 25 years that we reached this number by October it's hard to overstate how devastating these statistics are but behind every one of those homicides is a real person that as a city we failed a family that will have to live with the trauma and loss for the rest of their lives and this loss impacts our communities more broadly in so many immeasurable ways obviously crime
003issues pale in comparison to the issues we're having with homicides but they do have a very real impact on our city and in most categories this year violent crime and property crime is up compared to last year robberies are up 66% motor vehicle thefts are up 106% retail theft seems to be happening everywhere all the time and all of this has an impact in the victim and their family and the cumulative impact has a broader impact on making it difficult for residents to live their lives securely many residents Express fears of leaving their homes they're worried if they or their children go outside they may be victimized or Worse not be able to come home that night at all I've heard from residents who are ready to move out of the district because they are
004so scared and frustrated and when I think about the role of government I can think think of No Greater function more fundamental than protecting our residents and improving Public Safety policing is not the only answer to these issues but it is an extremely important piece of the puzzle which leads me next uh to the issues that our next chief will face MPD is struggling with historically low Staffing numbers as of earlier this year the department had 3,000 350 sworn officers down from over 3,800 in 2019 this Staffing challenge is not unique to the district's police department but it is a significant problem that our next chief will need to Grapple with what I'm going to be looking for from acting Chief Smith today is an understanding of this issue and a commitment to finding new
005Creative Solutions to address our staffing challenges like looking at what benefits officers want to see behind Beyond hiring bonuses to make the profession even more attractive in the meantime as we work to address the Staffing shortage the immediate challenge for MPD is to find ways that to use the Personnel that we do have more effectively and efficiently and I'll be hoping to hear from acting Chief Smith about ideas for using and expanding evidence-based policing methods that may be able to generate additional efficiencies I also hope to hear about plans to ensure that the officers we do have are distributed across the district effectively on that note we know the areas of the district that suffer the most from hearing gunfire on their streets and experiencing gunfire are in our most disadvantaged and underinvested communities in
006the district violent crimes disproportionally impact minority residents particularly black residents but these same residents are also impacted by aggressive policing strategies like jump outs and these types of strategies can undermine trust in police and this is a very important point when communities don't trust police they're less likely to cooperate with the police which makes it more difficult for MPD to close cases which means we have more violent offenders going free that leads residents to feel less safe and it can lead to retaliatory violence because beefing Crews sometimes think they need to take matters into their own hands so I'm very interested to hear from acting Chief Smith today about how she plans to thread this needle tackling violent crime and building trust in the communities that are most impacted by violent crime I also plan
007to ask about the work she's done so far to build stronger connections with communities and how she's balancing low Staffing numbers with the need for more officers walking the beat out of their cars I plan to ask how she'll hold officers accountable who are engaging in conduct that undermines public trust and I want to hear her perspective on the work of the police Reform Commission and the changes the Council made to work to improve Community Trust in police I also want to recognize the many changes that Metropolitan Police Department has made over the course of the last several decades um and the challenges that many officers face every day in doing this fundamentally important work on behalf of our city finally I was happy to hear acting Chief Smith say at her introductory press conference
008that she believes we need a whole of government approach to reducing violent crime I look forward to hearing from her today about what exactly she means by that for instance I plan to ask how MPD will work with other agencies to help connect individuals experiencing homelessness or mental health issues to Services I plan on asking acting Chief Smith about her views on the role of violence interrupts as we think about all the Avenues that we have in our toolkit from the council's perspective we passed a budget this year that allowed for additional MPD hiring that approved additional bonuses uh tuition assistance housing assistance uh introduced a package of initiatives last week called secure DC which seeks to fill some of the gaps that we're seeing right now in law enforcement um and we will continue
009to fight for those measures and we need an excellent partnership with our police department and all of our other government apparatus to move forward on other things that can think outside the box to make a difference and improve Public Safety there are too many lives on the line and it is there's too much at stake not to act it is clear that acting Chief Smith has a huge challenge ahead of her we're losing far too many of our neighbors Sons daughters parents and friends to gun violence and other violent crime in the district we will continue to make policy changes that we need to help stem this tide clearly we can improve on what we're doing now we have examples of cities that are having success despite Staffing shortages New Orleans has struggled for example
010with low numbers of officers but has seen a drop in violent crime this year and recently saw its first week without a killing or shooting since a hurricane hit the city in 2021 I'm hoping to hear from acting Chief Smith today what her plans are to try to achieve similar success in a very difficult situation and I think we all need to ask ourselves can we improve Public Safety while also building trust in communities that are most impacted by gun violence I think the answer is a resounding yes I don't think we have another option um and we need to keep moving forward before I turn to my colleagues for some opening remarks I do want to give a brief bio of acting Chief Smith as I noted Pamela Smith currently serves as acting chief
011of the Metropolitan Police Department acting Chief Smith has more than 25 years of law enforcement experience across several departments she joined MPD in May of 2022 as the Department's first Chief Equity officer in April 2023 she was promoted to assistant chief of police for the Homeland Security Bureau following Chief K's retirement on July 17th mayor Bowser nominated her to the position of chief of police and named her acting Chief before joining MPD excuse me acting Chief before joining MPD Miss Smith worked for the United States police the United States Park police starting as a patrol officer in 1998 and rising to chief of police in 2021 I also want to take a no moment to recognize and thank all of our extremely hardworking law enforcement officers who work so hard every day in a very
012tough situation um put your lives on the line make a lot of sacrifices for your own lives and your families and for that the district is extremely grateful thank you before we turn to public Witnesses I want to recognize my colleagues in attendance and give them a chance to make any opening remarks uh we will first turn to at large council member Christina Henderson who's a member of the committee council member Henderson please go ahead you'll have five minutes for any opening statement thank you uh chairperson Pento for calling today's hearing and good morning everyone we all know we find ourselves at a critical moment while nonviolent crime stag Ates and decreases violent crime is rising let me be clear this is unacceptable I disgusted and frustrated every time I read about a teenager being
013gunned down a parent with a child been carjacked or residents just living their lives and end up being victimized these and other crimes are traumatizing and make people afraid fearful to live their everyday lives suspicious of strangers reluctant to patronize businesses and wey of anything that is unfamiliar fear makes all of our worlds smaller and the worlds of those who are already vulnerable like our seniors persons with disability or families with small children even smaller it makes the community less strong and clearly we need more effective solutions for prevention and response that is why today's hearing is so important the more we know and the more action we see the less We Fear residents for residents the simplest version of this is knowledge that when it comes to NPD knowing who your officers are in
014your particular District seeing them on patrol in their neighborhoods out of their cars and feeling confident in responses to safe and unviolated Al working together admittedly it's a little strange how we do this uh Chief Smith you were nominated and started the job in July but you've essentially been doing an onth job interview for the last few months and we're now here at your official hearing Chief you and I met earlier this summer and as chair PTO mentioned I agree with your whole of government approach to addressing crimes and behaviors that impact the livability of our communities and our neighbors feeling of safety I don't expect MPD to do this alone but you all have a big role when I think about the opioid crisis in this city and I'll just mention we have lost
015238 residents to opioid related fatalities this year but when I think about the opioid crisis that is most certainly linked to the CRI violent crime we are seeing treatment and Rehabilitation isn't your wheelhouse but shutting down those very well-known open a drug Rings putting fit and on on our streets most certainly is and I look forward to hearing more about your plans in this area and others I'm also very interested in your plans Chief Smith to shift imp PD culture build morale and retain more younger officers Chief you are most certainly an accomplished leader but we also must acknowledge that you're the first Chief in years to lead a department having not been a member of it for a long period of time prior to your appointment this is a shift and something you will
016most certainly need to Grapple with if confirmed I look forward to hearing the public Witnesses today and thank you for your testimony in advance um and from acting Chief Smith thank you all for your time and thank you chairperson Pinto thank you very much council member Henderson we're next going to turn to our award seven colleague council member Vince gray who's also a member of the committee and for your planning purposes colleagues uh after that we'll turn to council member McDuffy Nido Parker fruman go ahead council member greay thank you very much uh thank you very much I'm delighted to be able to have the opportunity to to work with you uh today uh as you move forward uh on the uh the uh opportunity that you are creating for us and uh I'm more
017than happy to be able to do that uh so I I will look forward to working with with you uh and the other members of uh this committee and uh we'll do whatever we can try to uh move forward as quickly as we can with the uh with the opportunities that are being created now so thank you very much I don't want to I don't want to you know prolong this any any longer that we do than we have at this point so thank you very much uh council member great thank you so much council member gray next we'll turn to our at large colleague council member Kenyan McDuffy thank you uh chair Pinto uh for calling this round table um I also want to thank all the public Witnesses who are here and who've
018signed up to testify many of your faces I know and have worked with uh in the community over the years and uh I really admire your dedic a and commitment to the city and to uh making our city safer um I I did have a a different set of remarks prepared to deliver for this round table um but yesterday afternoon changed that um it changed because my heart sank uh after learning that yet had another teenage student at dumbar High School was gunned down uh after leaving the school around the corner from his school there was uh shooting and homicide a little while ago which makes this the second student from that school this month so today I went to Dumar to be with the students to be with the the teachers to be with
019the staff and the school community and I want to thank everybody who showed up with me I made a call late last night wasn't sure if people would even get my text or hear my call or my voicemail but they did and they showed up and they stood shoulder toos shoulder with me uh to let that school Community know that we love them we care about them and we're going to be with them uh until we fix this issue around safety it was hard to look some of the young folks in their eyes though and tell them it's going to be okay because the reality is they're dealing with that trauma and I know what it feels like I know what it looks like it's it's similar trauma to what I experienced growing up in
020the District of Columbia decades ago and some of you all are here to testify know that as well because you all experienced it in this city decades ago too and the Stark reality is when we see things like that happen we have to acknowledge that we are failing to keep our kids safe and we have to do everything humanly possible to change that everything every single government tool that we have every single agency that has anything to do with Public Safety or Economic Opportunity trying to get to the root causes of what's causing some of the crime and violence that we're seeing need to be deployed to address this and so I look forward to hearing from Chief Smith I want to know where the plan is I want to know how she is going
021to address some of the challenges that we're [Music] seeing I want to know that she understands that getting to the point we are today with more than 200 homicides a point we haven't been in 25 years is unacceptable and it's got to stop and it's got to change when I was growing up in the city in the 1980s and 1990s violence was at its worst it was at its worse and I see people shaking their head because they they remember those days but guess what I knew the officers who were walking in my neighborhood I knew officer Lynch would greet me when I went through the doors of the number 10 boys and girls club at 14th in Clifton I knew that Mitch CTO would be there to coach me in the evenings and to
022take me to the games on the weekend right because those officers were of the community so what is Chief Smith doing to make sure that we have officers that are of the community what exactly is the plan to beef up community policing and if there are tools or resources that she needs then what are those things and how could the council support to make sure that we get that how do we get more officers living in in the community should we still have the 60 college credit requirement for officers if we know that it it it leads to missing a whole slew of people who are able to do the job and so my time is up um but I want to thank you chair Pinto for having this round table and I really look
023forward to uh hearing from the chief and working with anybody else in this city who's going to continue to fight to reduce violence in the district of colia particularly gone violence thank you thank you very much council member McDuffy next we will turn to award one colleague council member Brienne noo thank you madam chair for convening this hearing and thank you to Chief Smith for taking on the difficult job of leading MPD in addressing public safety concerns in a post-pandemic era I look forward to hearing today your concrete priorities for improving Public Safety in the district and how Council can support your efforts it has been a diff difficult year for Public Safety in W one and across the district the news yesterday that we've surpassed 200 homicides in the district this year was devastating
024wherever you live in the district you're feeling the impact of this violence and I get it yes I'm a council member but I'm also a mom raising my two daughters in W one no one should have to worry about their safety walking down the street enjoying our public spaces patronizing businesses none of this is okay the only way we're going to get through this is by working together thoughtfully and strategically you've heard me say I believe in a comprehensive approach to Public Safety I'm not alone everyone on the council agrees I think you agree Chief the mayor agrees no one tool is going to solve crime in The District No One agency can do it alone effective prevention requires policing Mental Health Services Social Services substance use disorder services not to mention jobs and housing
025Chief you've said things publicly and in our conversations that I appreciate and are encouraging to me you've expressed support for more Community engagement by your officers and you've already started this I've appreciated the opportunity over the past several months to join MPD initiated Community walks all over world one I know that officers are engaging with businesses and residents and hitting key locations you've also talked about Distributing police resources more equitably based on incidents of crime this is something I've talked with you about I've also asked you directly to allocate more officers to the UST Street area and PSA 305 and to other hotspots in W one which are chronically understaffed compared to PSAs with less crime in other boards I've requested that you find funds for additional mobile cameras and pledge to allocate funds in
026the next budget if that does not happen sooner I look forward today to hearing more about how you plan to do that what your strategy will be and how you'll determine where and when to allocate the resources as we all know recruiting and retaining sworn officers is a challenge for MPD as it is for police departments in nearly every large city in the country you offer bonuses of $25,000 and it's still hard to recruit the council's provided funding each year for more positions that MP MPD has been able to fill that is lack of funding is not the issue here one thing I've done in this area is to introduce legislation that'll increase eligibility for the cadet program and increased pay for those going through the program I've spoken with some of the cadets who
027are enthusiastic about this idea and I hope that the council will take up my bill so that we can get more recruits in the pipeline that way I'm interested to hear what else you're doing Chief to increase Recruitment and Retention another challenge MPD faces daily is not being able to test the evidence it collects from crime scenes because the crime lab is shut down to fix that I'm working on a bill to help get the crime lab at DFS which lost its accreditation in 2021 get its reaccreditation back inability to process evidence is a significant obstacle to prosecution and must be addressed EXP expeditiously and we have a serious problem with the office of unified Communications we simply can't have people call in in one and wait 30 60 90 seconds five minutes or more
028this is not in your purview of course Chief but it's important in every Public Safety conversation to be mindful of the tools we already have in place and work to make sure we're putting those into practice and using them effectively over the summer Council passed the prioritizing Public Safety emergency act in July under chair Pinto's leadership which give judges additional tools to keep some of the most violent offenders off our street and expand the council's popular camera rebate program it also includes an amendment I co-introduced to require more Community focused policing and it strengthens my red flag law which requires the immediate removal of firearms from people at highest risk to do harm to themselves or others I opposed A provision to increase pre-trial detention for Youth and I'll continue to oppose that provision as
029we craft a permanent version of the legislation this fall the public safety issues we're facing won't be solved overnight and we must do things in short medium and longterm it's important to be clear about who does what council passes laws like the ones I mentioned earlier MPD implements patrolling and Crim stopping strategies the US attorney's office which is accountable to federal government only makes decisions about what cases to prosecute and how to prosecute them but it is recently declined to prosecute 67% of DC cases and finally the executive branch of government with the most power to do something about Public Safety host numerous programs from the office of nightlife to Mental Health Services Abra affordable housing DPW parking enforcement and more I remain as intent as ever on prioritizing police social support services parking and
030other enforcement I continue to believe because it's based on evidence that longer term strategies such as addressing homelessness and creating job opportunities are the true way to eliminate crime thank you Chief Smith I look forward to hearing your testimony and asking you questions about your priorities thank you madam chair thank you very much council member nadoo next we will turn to our W five colleague council member Zachary Parker thank you chair pinto and thank you for convening today's Roundtable I also want to thank the many residents and Advocates who are preparing to provide testimony today organizations reflect the values hail by leadership and today is an important opportunity for us to understand what values will guide our Metropolitan Police Department chief Smith I have a number of questions uh for that I hope we can
031discuss today but I want to begin with a personal note of appreciation for her partnership during the first few months in the role as acting Chief I appreciate her coming uh to several uh Public Safety meetings that I held in W five some in a neighbor's homes and one large scale meeting in the Brooklyn Community uh where she uh jumped into action addressed Community concerns and rolled out uh a new strategy that has proven to be successful I appreciate um that with this position um both a lot of responsibility and a lot of criticism um and appreciate the leadership the acting Chief Smith has shown to date at the same time I continue to have serious concerns about our violence prevention efforts in the district an outsized portion of the conversation about violence in our
032city has focus on changes to our criminal code and process yet little attention has been paid to the way we use available resources to enforce existing laws little attention has been paid to our failure to implement gun violence prevention strategies little attention has been paid to officer morale especially shortcomings identified in the Police Executive Research forum's cultural assessment of the MPD Workforce uh little attention has been paid to our record uh failing to hold accountable officers and others uh who engage in serious misconduct and far too little attention is being paid to investments in the district residents that would make our community safer by creating Paths of opportunity um that would prevent violence from occurring in the first place I have routinely called for a comprehensive whole of government approach to Public Safety likewise I
033have repeatedly called on the executive to provide a comprehensive Public Safety strategy and we must uh enhance safety at our schools at the same time we address uh the way our opioid crisis in the district is converging with violence playing out on our streets every day I hope to he concrete steps acting Chief Smith and executive plan to take to address all of these issues and more uh and I hope that through uh public witness testimony um and that of acting Chief Smith we can dig into the issues that are not getting nearly enough attention so with that thank you again chair pinto and I'm looking forward to a fruitful discussion thank you very much council member Parker next we will turn to our award three colleague council member Matt fan uh thank you thank
034you very much care Pinto thank you for holding this hearing I will join in also thanking all the public Witnesses and Advocates who will be testifying today um this is clearly a a very serious moment for our City crime is up in ways that are scaring people in every corner of our city and unsettling our business community calling into question how we're going to be able to be successful going forward this is really a moment where all of us are feeling the challenges of Public Safety and it is very important that we work together in the kind of whole of government approach that others have been talking about to try to address these issues it is also critical as I think council member Ando pointed out that part of addressing maybe even the most part
035of addressing most most important part of addressing these issues is creating a sense of opportunity and hope among more of our residents and getting at the root causes of crime but today isn't going to be about the root causes of crime today is going to be about how do we and how does the acting Chief respond to the crisis that we're having right now and there are many challenges that she will face um one is the understaffing at MP um and all of the efforts that we're trying to make together to try to strengthen MPD and I'll be very curious to hear from uh acting Chief Smith how she plans to try to build the force back to the levels that she think are necessary what kinds of steps can we take with her to
036support that council member McDuffy talked about knowing the the police officers who were in his community at the time how are we going to build up community policing so we have a stronger connection between the the the department and communities that are the most effective that's going to be a critical component I know my residents are constantly asking for more presence particularly in places that have been hotspots of trouble how does the acting Chief hope to achieve that it all also happens in a context where um the the relationship between the department and some of our communities is strained in ways that are maybe um maybe worse than they have been in the past but in any case need to be addressed the the department is constantly trying to get a sense of the confidence
037that folks in different communities have in the work that they're doing and looking at strategies to strengthen the connection and strength s strengthen the trust between the department and communities MPD can't solve crimes unless others are helping them and so what kinds of steps are she thinking about to try to strengthen that connection how does that fit with accountability for police officers who who act outside of the ways in which we all want them to behave what kinds of things is she thinking about in terms of accountability what kinds of things is she thinking about in terms of community engagement I had the Good Fortune this summer to participate in the community engagement Academy at MPD and so I got to hear firsthand from lots of officers about the kinds of things that are on
038their mind things they'd like to see that would be an expression of support by the city for the work that they're doing I'll be curious to hear from the acting Chief what kinds of things she would like to see us do in that based the biggest thing that I'm going to be looking for is a spirit of partnership both with the council and with the folks in all of our communities to tackle this crisis of Public Safety that we're facing right now because we're going to have to do it together and I'm going to want to hear how the acting Chief intends to do that with our communities with the council and frankly with folks in for example the the Mental Health Community that is uh because a a part of what's going on is
039a mental health crisis and how do we address that and disentangle it to the extent that we can from the from uh public safety issues and address the root causes of the mental health issues and take weight off of the shoulders of MPD in settings like that so that they have more bandwidth to deal with the issues for which they are the best quick so I look forward to hearing from the tech from the public Witnesses and from acting Chief Smith I'll have lots of questions but also a very strong Spirit of wanting to try to work together to tackle this problem great thank you so much council member fruman appreciate all of my colleagues being here today um so for today's Roundtable we're going to follow the committee's normal practice and hear from public
040Witnesses first followed by the nominee public witnesses will have three minutes to present their testimony and those who represent organizations will have five minutes as a reminder if there are multiple people from the same organization one person from that organization will have five minutes um and the remainder will have three two quick procedural notes we are having a hybrid hearing today so that means we're having Witnesses testify in person and virtually um in respect for folks time we're going to start with our in-person Witnesses first and then move to uh virtual Witnesses for in-person Witnesses we're going to have panels of four um if the fourth person on your panel is not here we're going to move to the next person in the next panel to fill at the table um and to our virtual
041Witnesses we're going to have panels of eight colleagues will have three minute rounds for questions with that I will invite our first panel of public witnesses to come up and I'll ask the first person I call to seat farthest to my right so in this first chair um and the rest of the witnesses to sit and you know the subsequent next seat panel one Brian M malland public witness charita widding chair Ward for Education Council mty Leroy Thorp citizens organization Patrol efforts the Red Hats Patrol and Robert Vincent Branham W five Leadership Council Public Safety Committee all right Brian muholland public witness please go ahead when you're ready I didn't know it was not on I'm sorry my name is Brian malland I'm a resident of Ward 6 I'm here to address the number one
042crisis in our city that has our citizens living in fear on a daily basis made us the laughing stock of the nation and a city at War while this Council has addressed holding violent offenders over for trial and other measures crime prevention has not been addressed we gave a hero's farewell to the last chief of police who failed miserably one murder is too many and this this didn't happen overnight we've had 3 years of unaddressed murder increases in the city and the Staffing increase the Staffing shortages also did not happen overnight I'm here to ask you to not confirm Muriel Bowser's choice for chief of police when crime is at a 20-year High she chooses a park ranger when we need a Marine General at War 209 murders up 28% 2564 robberies up 66% 5282
043537 motor vehicle thefts up 106% list goes on and it hasn't decreased one iota since Pamela Smith has become acting Chief acting Chief Smith has no plan she actually asked her commanders to devise one no Kathy lanir all hands on deck so successful that she survived three Mayors police officers so tired from earning overtime that they can't out get out of their Cruisers to walk a beat we are in a crisis it's time the mayor and the council started acting like it you sounded surprised today that it hit 209 it's going to be close to 300 do the math by the end of the year without Swift action grandmothers killed by driveby shootings children who are not old enough to drive stealing cars it's the Wild Wild West are you going to tell the spouses
044and parents and children and families and friends of the 209 people who lost their lives that Pamela Smith is the best you could find are you going to tell them there's no more Kathy laners or Tom mangers or Bill Bratton left in this country willing to roll up their sleeves in the nation's capital seriously that's all you got now I'm sure miss Smith is a nice person I'm sure she is well-liked By The Park police I'm sure that she is another first for the mayor but we are in crisis we Des deserve someone who has been in the tough battles not patrolling picnic baskets we need a proven leader not an on the- job trainee I urge you to deny the mayor this appointment and ask her to send you someone more qualified to handle
045a war we are at War and the bad guys are winning thank you thank you shita Whiting chair W for education counc good morning uh committee chair and all committee and council members present my name is Sharita Whiting and I am a native washingtonia I'm the founder of the warp education Council former chair of the DC NAACP education committee former Vice chair and former chair of 4B I am extremely happy to be here to testify in support of confirming the next chief of police Pamela A Smith Chief Smith is probably one of the first with MPD who I did not previously know nor had I worked with when I reached out to her she was very responsive and we started exchanging emails and had several phone conversations I set up a series of community porch
046meetings for her to come and sit with residents and have them ask her unprepared questions that she needed to be prepared to answer and to also give us where she is looking forward to taking this uh Department too they were younger middle-aged seniors men and women and by the time we had moved to our final porch we had standing room only folks from previous porches followed us to the other porches because they wanted to continue the conversations on this particular day Chief Smith received several phone calls from violence that was happening across our city but she didn't waver from the folks who she had in front of in front of her but she answered are many questions and and continue to cons uh receive the multiple phone calls what I saw on this day was
047the chief that was ready to roll let's be clear none of us want or like the shootings or killings that are happening in our city those of us who've been here all of our lives this is our city okay I'm a mom also I don't want to see anything happen to my son his friends my grandmother any of my relatives okay but I have never seen any Chief any mayor or any council member shoot anybody so first off let's be clear it starts at home take care of what's going on in your own house before you start talking about this but I do have to say we have had many problems even more since we have defunded the police defunding the police may work in some cities and states I personally don't feel that it
048was right for us here because we lost hundreds of officers when we did so and so now we have to fund them we have to train them and they can't get out on the street within a matter of days it takes a a quite a bit of time about 18 months before they can even get back but I want to say that the chief I feel she's here right now she wants to do the job we have to have somebody who wants to do the job let's be clear everybody doesn't want to do this job here okay so not just in war before but I've taken her to W eight she's met with folks over at Johnson Middle School she's out in the community she's trying to see what she can do but the one
049thing that I will also say about the night life I've seen where she has gotten the officers to now get out of their cars as many of you know I managed several goo bands and a lot of the club Owners don't like that they have to pay the price that they have to pay for the overtime police officers because they felt like they weren't doing anything but sitting in their cars the same week that I had that conversation with the chief I myself witnessed officers outside of their cars and actually patrolling the areas which is what's needed and which is what the uh club Owners were asking for especially if they got to pay that price for the officers so basically um you know I don't even have to continue with what I wrote I
050can just tell you how I feel from being a person raised here in this city I've worked very closely with many of the Chiefs here and nobody's going to have an easy job of doing this nobody okay but what I would say the funding is halfway back it's not all the way back let's be clear but we need the funding we need our offices we need to build our team back up and we need to work together with this crisis but we also can't expect for the council the mayor or the police chief to fix the problems we have to work with parents and parents have to want to work with us to get this problem resolved so I'm here in support of confirming Chief p CA A Smith thank you thank you so much
051appreciate it m Leroy Thorp citizens organization Patrol efforts the Red Hats patrol please go ahead greetings Madam chair and committee members my name is alhajj miti Leroy J Thor Jr I am the President of the shaw East Central civic association and chairman of cop volunteer Red Hats Patrol which Patrols in the Shaw and Chinatown neighborhoods of War two I want to thank the Third District police Commander James botler as well as former assistant chief Patrick Burke of the DC police foundation for their partnership with the c Red Hats Patrol and Shaw as we continue to eradicate crime I also want to recognize the FBI police for supporting our Red Hats Patrol as we continue to clean up the 600 block of I Street in Chinatown where property owners and businesses applaud our efforts I will
052not support the confirmation of Pamela A Smith as the next DC police Chiefs of the DC MPD she only spent one year as a police chief with Park police and had little support from its officers during her tenure with the dcmpd she did not have any duties overseeing police operations in the city nor did she know or have any contact with crime fighting activists such as myself and I have been fighting crime in DC since 1988 I have worked closely with every dcmpd police chief since Isaac fulwood and former dcmpd police chief Charles Ramsey whom was one of my uh closest friends and is one of my closest friends and mentors violent crime in the city gun running rings incommoding prohibiting businesses to operate in Chinatown and prostitution in chin Chinatown has increased on the
053watch of acting Chief Pamela a Smith and let me add that none of the white shirts and rarely the first district police officers have acknowledged our red house Patrol UND Duty in Chinatown which includes you as well councilwoman Pento as well as other DC government elected or non-elected public officials and including Acton Chief Pamela A Smith which is shameful and sends a message you are all blowing smoke regarding Public Safety in closing the liberal DC Council public policy of legalizing marijuana has created a cesspool of degenerate sexual behavior among adults and youth in this city as well as creating a generation of drug addicts and students going and leaving school high on dope as a junior as a junior in high school treny and Dropout rates increased particularly amongst l Latino and black youth I
054like to add that sexually loose parents unmarried shacking up with men in their homes in front of their children and setting no curfews to be in the house and not getting involved with their children school activities not monitoring whom their children friends and disciplining their children for foul profane language as they travel to and from school and also women who prohibits their CH their their children fathers from being a part of needy guidance in their lives have contributed to their children being unsupervised perpetrators victims of this of the city under siege regarding violence also council member pent your crime bill on search and fris is racist towards black people whom would often be profiled in your bill if passed let me thank your staff member Miss Benjamin for assisting me with uh information regarding uh
055this uh this hearing and I thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you thank you very much next we'll turn to Robert Vincent Branham W five Leadership Council Public Safety Committee good afternoon Madame chair council member McDuffy other members of the committee I am Robert Vincent brandham a former ANC commissioner and president emeritus of the DC Federation of Civic associations and also chair of the Public Safety Committee of the W five Leadership Council I am pleased to appear before this committee to support with great enthusiasm the nomination of acting Chief Pamela A Smith to be chief of police for the dcmpd this nomination and Confirmation come at a critical juncture in the history of the city regarding crime Congressional and Council oversight of Public Safety and Community advocacy for police reform there is also
056the fact of MPD officer morale navigating these political and Public Safety Waters requires skill expert experience and a vision to see across the public safety Seas of Doubt Despair and disappointment to guide this District ship into calm Waters and onto safe shores of Hope peace and Justice regardless of difficult task confronting new leaders he or she must be a believer I believe acting Chief Smith is a Believer not only in the employees of MPD the people of the district but also in herself despite all the negative comments about her MPD locally law enforcement nationally acting Chief Smith is a Believer regardless of some police reform Advocates and political progressives shouting defund the police Progressive Community organizations who rightly protest officer misconduct are silent to persons who are committing violent crimes carjackings shootings and creating other
057discomfort in our communities I believe acting Chief Smith is a believer in the District of Columbia although she is the will be the she is the first African americ to head MPD she is a True Believer in public safety if you declare with your mouth and believe in your heart you will be saved for it is with your heart you believe and a just Justified and it is with your mouth you profess your faith and are saved in my remaining time I would like to say that I have received a copy of some of her Chief uh Smith priority Focus areas and some of the topics that ring out deal with school safety and Community engagement community policing the multi- agency uh coordination and Behavioral Health and physical and mental health and wellness and Police
058recruitment included in my statement to you Madame chair and members of the committee is a letter that I sent to uh mayor Bowser some time ago on the thinking of of the uh processes for these next election I've emailed that to you and I'm re presenting it to you as part of my statement this uh this afternoon I want to close by saying that I take a back seat to no one in fighting for Public Safety and also I'll take a backseat to no one in fighting discrimination mass incarceration and other issues that deal with police reform I've been out there protested but Chief Smith is an advocate for police reform and community policing and I strongly enthusiastically wholeheartedly and a great uh perspective I understand what the issues are so support her nomination to
059be the next chief of police of the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department I thank you I thank you I thank you great thank you all so much um for your testimony really appreciate it um we're going to start our rounds of questions for colleagues we're gonna have three minute rounds um Mr mahand you talked about having somebody with the perspective of uh fighting essentially more aggressively are there strategies you have in mind or that you've seen deployed by other departments that you think could make a more meaningful difference well uh to start all all hands on deck uh that that Kathy lanir had was was very effective it might not have been popular with the rank and file but we didn't look at these kind of numbers during her her tenure these numbers have
060escalated since went to the NFL so so you know that that's that's a fact that that's a fact uh the community policing uh is all is all great too the the curfew should be Citywide and not and not just in certain areas and the uh to your comments earlier about sending the officers where the where the need is the greatest we we uh uh reassigning them is is is the right thing too many guys sitting in the cars too many guys sitting in the cars thank you very much and miss Whiting you talked about which I think is a really important point of it's starting at home um as we think from a perspective of government do you think there are ways that the city can be doing more to support families to making sure
061that they are supporting their kids um yeah that's a great question I do believe there is um but we all have to understand that the families have to want the help as well but we have to take notice of what we see where we see it and then just step in sometimes we might have to overrule what the family may feel is best for their self because sometimes even myself I can speak for myself I may not know what's best for me but you could see something that I may not see so we have to start with our youth um very early age our youth now have parents that are younger as well so that's why we have to start with the parenting at an early age once there you know we find out the
062pregnancies are happening and offer coaching offer mentorship to those who want it and like I said let's be clear everybody's not going to be welcoming of what you're trying to offer them okay thank you um and just our last seconds here Mr Thorp thank you for what you do for Community safety as we think about the next chief of police are there ways that uh Metropolitan Police Department could be more supportive to the work that you're doing and supplementing some of the public safety needs as you see it thank you for the question first of all let me just point of information um pamel Smith is not the first acting female Chief uh sonor Proctor was the first acting uh police chief for MPD so that I think a lot of people need to get
063that straight to answer your question um yeah I think they need to I think you know what she can do is is support and try to uh I guess um support the effort of uh PE groups like myself like back in the 80s and 90s um the government didn't have to spending millions of dollars on a lot of these con artists that's getting money now the crime interruptor and which is not making any type of uh progress regarding crime I think you know they need to uh Institute to the uh citizen Patrol groups I ran mayor Kelly's Community Patrol Support Office uh we had Red Hats orange hats green hats white hats very effective uh didn't cost a penny uh and I think we need to go back to that she needs to try to
064uh motivate people to go back to getting getting the community involved I mean and and and and also officers out of their cars because they don't come out of their cars when I'm in Chinatown they come by and wave the white shirts they don't even speak with us they don't even get out of their cars okay thank you very much thank you all appreciate it next uh council member gray you have any questions for this panel council member McDuffy uh just briefly thank you madam chair and thank you all for your testimony I appreciate it um A Couple Of You' all talked about uh uh police getting out of their patrol cars I mentioned that in in my opening statement and and I mentioned that uh both by way of context of being somebody born
065and raised in the district having experienced it firsthand as a resident but also somebody who professionally uh was a an attorney at Department of Justice and the special litigation section of the Civil Rights division who investigated police departments brought in technical assistance worked with policing practices experts to reform police department so I know what good community policing looks like um what needs to be done with this department what what if you could have Pamela Smith right across from you today what would you tell her to do to help get officers out of their patrol cars into the communities and more a part of these neighborhoods understanding residents knowing residents knowing small business owners um to answer your question from my perspective I I did have that conversation with her okay and then like I said
066within a week I saw the difference so I told her how the actual club Owners were feeling about the money that they had to pay for the overtime and they felt like it was a waste of money because the officers weren't outside their cars what conversations she had with her officers I can't really say cuz I wasn't privy to that but I do know that I've seen the difference okay so it's happening okay I I like to add that I think uh she needs to have a a conversation with Third District commander botler who does the best regarding police and police and Community working together MH um I think he does the best in the city I mean we get all kind of support from him in uh the shaw Community but the first district
067we're not getting no support at all FBI police has been fantastic checking on us the Staffing uh crisis didn't happen yesterday the staffing has been an issue for years unaddressed so you've got guys uh in the cars working uh over time exhausted you have to really be doing something wrong to get pulled over by a Metropolitan Police Department you have got to have cut him off in order to get pulled over running stop signs running lights forget about that but but they res they they don't want to respond to the shooting they they're just going to let the detectives do the cleanup work later on it's it's they're tired they're tired because the Staffing hasn't been addressed but the Staffing didn't become a problem today it became a problem years ago ignored by the previous
068Chief and the chief before that got it okay uh and just I'm running a long time so I won't I won't throw another question out there I do want to uh just amplify a point that you uh made uh Mr Thorp when you said you know go back to getting people involved in their communities um I you know I think it does still take a village uh I think that a lot of what we're seeing is the absence of involvement I'm not pointing the finger obviously at residents or the community I'm just thinking about ways and different solutions to get people more involved and if you all have suggestions about what you know I can do as a council member my colleagues who are interested can do then I'd love to hear that thanks thank
069you madam chair thank you councilor McDuffy councilor member nadoo no questions Madam chair thank you you council member [Music] Parker thank you um I have a few Mr mull Mand um you mentioned that you you you're not supporting um acting Chief Smith's nomination um in part because of her tenure on the force um is there a length of time you think someone should have in order to serveice Chief councilman she was she was only a chief of the of the Park police for a year she's got no no I I understand but is there a length of time you think would make her qualify well I think I think we should either take them up from the ranks from from one of the Deputy Chiefs who have been here and and know the district and
070we've we we have some other uh people that are qualified that have been in the department for years that are Deputy or assistant Chiefs that that would be the first look or there are some Chiefs from U major departments that are uh that would uh probably relish the opportunity to come to the District of Columbia because we are the nation's capital and and and that would thank you for that yes thank you Mr Dorp similar question you reference acting Chief Smith's tenure with MPD is there a length of time you think would make her qualified since you suggests uh that her current length of time while the force doesn't thank thank you excuse me not at all I agree with the gentleman uh to my left everything you said I'm I'm in supportive okay and
071then miss Whiting I wanted to come to you you made a comment that funding uh is not fully backed and I'm assuming you meant funding for MPD can you just elaborate on that well we're right now at uh 3,334 officers we we uh have said for years we wanted to be at 4,000 officers um when the defunding first happened uh we lost some for to retirement we lost some to uh just resigning and um as we know it's not like you walking into the council and getting a job as an analyst and you can start tomorrow when we hire them they still got to go through 18 months of training and then you know no I I appreciate that I just for those watching um and the Staffing at MPD continues to be a concern
072it is not one connected to funding and in fact the council has uh given MPD every amount of money that they've requested um but our work to continue to attract and retain officers uh continues uh but I did just want to underscore that uh while many criticize the council's work in the past as it relates to funding for MPD this year's budget we gave the force everything that they requested so uh that is my time uh thanks chair person Pinto thank you council member Parker council member fruman uh thank you very much chair Pinto um I I don't have any questions for this panel I want to thank them for their testimony great thank you all very much for being here appreciate it we will now call our next panel of public Witnesses Ron Williams
073public witness Ramen branch public witness Stephanie Campbell Congress Heights Community training and Development Corporation Wendell Quan destination Congress Heights and as a reminder if you have U printed testimony that you'd like to submit to the committee you can uh bring it to akima Benjamin who's sitting over here that's great too thank you all right uh we're also going to add to this panel Troy shley cor Masters Berry public witness Lisa Laval second district citizens advisory Council Fritz Mouser DC open government coalition Royer co-convenor award seven Faith leaders great um Ron Williams okay great please go ahead when ners ready good morning Madam chair and members of the Judiciary Committee it's about 2:53 a.m. in in the morning as I write this on the day we're nominating a new chief of police and as of this
074time right now the city police department responded to recorded and the morg has received over 209 bodies this year it's unfair to measure the acting Chiefs years of experience in law enforcement by this metric alone but we know some in the public and on this Council will say that's all we need to measure her by I say this notion is wrong and misplaced as a resid award 7even living in the six Police District my life and activities of daily living span WS 2 357 and 8 I'm an active member of the Seventh District citizens advisory Council led by the great Anthony Muhammad a proud student of political science and business management at the University of the District of Columbia who supports the DC archives being on our campus a practicing Christian and worshipper at bethl
075Christian Fellowship in w 8 but more importantly a generational Washingtonian whose concern about my daughter and her classmate safety is Paramount in this city from the chief's initial actions upon being named chief of police for example connecting with a the accc's cbos and communities east of the anacosta anacosta river are all positive performance worthy merits and unconventional approaches we need to take and credit the chief for and the reason reasons why I'm supporting the mayor's nomination of her I believe a community policing and accountability approach is necessary and proper she's been tirelessly at meetings east of the anacasa river in the community T talking and engaging with residents and making the first steps of what Comm community policing should look like here in the district in closing I have a couple of Acts of this
076Council increased the number of MPD officers and Cadets in the Staffing pattern due to attrition and defunding the police bring back the crime suppression units in communities the plain closed offices that were aggressive on crime and not people instead of the instead of calling for 18 to 24 year old white boys in military uniforms from rural America to stand on our Corners with AK-47s waiting for the potential of disaster because of the many preconceived notions that they have about black people in their heads I stand in support of this nomination of Chief Pamela A Smith thank you Madame chair thank you Mr Williams Ramen branch public witness greetings members of the council my name is Rockman Branch former principal of ballior high school former executive director of the mayor's office on African-American Affairs but today
077I stand in front of you as a proud member of w 8 I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts on the appointment of our new Chief Pamela Smith I come with the measure perspective Ive understanding the challenges issues and tensions that have histo historically existed between law enforcement and communities of color my recent interaction with our new Chief led me to believe that her Fresh Approach to community engagement and service to our residents is needed and is a step in the right direction it's no secret that our communities often feel marginalized and unheard we've sometimes been policed without the belief that we're also deserving service therefore it's encouraging to see a leader who emphasizes the importance of rebuilding Relationships by understanding and tending to the needs of people my hope is that her energy
078and approach to serving and engaging with communities will spread throughout the force and Inspire others to be Chang agents and different differen makers whether it be patrolling parades or addressing the unfortunate uptick and violent crime in our city I have confidence that Chief Smith recognizes DC could benefit from a people- centered approach that involves collaborative efforts across the city City our community's charge to iterum Chief Smith and his council is that we see more officers recruited from the very communities that they serve fostering a sense of connection and understanding that can help bridge a long-standing gap between law enforcement and communities of color please note that my support for this appointment does not come without expectations it's contingent on the understanding that change cannot come from one individual it's essential that this new approach brings
079an integral part of the entire police department's culture all officers should be uh should adopt a commitment to genuine Community engagement and prioritizing the well the well-being of the people that they're sworn to protect also a fundamental aspect of this transformation is a shift from traditional reactive policing methods towards a more proactive approach to crime prevention we must acknowledge that crime prevention is multifaceted it requires addressing root causes collaboratively with the community and this shift can only come with the with a change in leadership but also with the adequate funding to support the city to empower our Police Department in its Endeavor in conclusion as we consider this appointment we must recognize the lived experiences and perspective of perspectives of our communities of color rather than vilifying police let's collectively embrace the realities we Face
080work together and build a safer more inclusive City where every resident feels heard valued and protected thank you thank you Mr Branch Lisa Laval second district citizens advisory Council my name is Lisa Laval I am an over 45y year resident of DC Ward I and I have the honor of serving as a member of the Metropolitan Police Department's chief of police advisory Council and as the vice chair of the second district citizens advisory Council thank you for giving me the opportunity un to express my support for the confirmation of Pamela Smith as the next chief of police of the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department Miss Smith comes to her position as a with a somewhat unusual background she makes no secret of the difficulties she encountered in her childhood having experienced violence as a
081young person as such her professional success success is a testimony that it is possible to overcome such terrible disadvantages and still achieve great things and importantly her life story can serve as an inspiration to many Pamela Smith is also an ordained minister in my view this is a particularly important qualification we live in a time when our Traditional Values are under siege values which have underpinned our Western Civilization for centuries we live in a time when families are either non-existent or in deep distress who better to understand the importance of promoting solid families as an antidote to Crime than someone who preaches religious principles who can better seek to restore peace to our community than a person of deep religious Faith who is prepared to put her faith to work for our community Pamela Smith
082assuredly understands human behavior and is in a position to fully appreciate the current crime crisis which our community is experiencing it is also true that Miss Smith has served as Chief Dei officer of the Metropolitan Police as a consequence she should be aware far more than most people of the negative negative effects of seeking to impose quotas of any sort on a police force of the detrimental effect of hiring solely based on the basis of race gender sexual preference ethnicity or ideology we are at a time when the strengthening confidence in the MPD should be a key goal of the new Chief of Police police officers can only engender communal confidence and Trust if they show themselves to be competent in the performance of their tasks competent police officers should be hired on their ability
083to perform and on their temperament not on the color of their skin or their gender we must not try to correct the racist mistakes of our past Within overcorrection in our behavior that only serves to discriminate in the opposite direction Miss Smith's experience as Chief Dei officer therefore should lead Miss Smith to reject any attempt to base the hiring and promotion of police officers on any criteria other than the highest levels of competence professionalism appro rate temperament intelligence discernment and above all good judgment to paraphrase the eloquent remarks of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr the MPD and indeed every component of government needs to hire and promote people strictly on the basis of the content of their character of each individual and not on external immutable able and irrelevant factors for these reasons I am
084pleased to endorse Miss Smith's candidature for chief of police however I must emphasize that my endorsement is subject to certain conditions first Miss Miss needs to commit that she will lead the MPD not as a social engineering experiment but strictly as a law enforcement agent devoted to protecting the safety and secur of all our citizens we need fewer violence interrupts and more law enforcement agents on the streets we need we need to stop encouraging police officers to deliver footballs to to juveniles as a means of coopting them as our friends the Youth of the district are not our friends they are our responsibility thank you thank you Irwin Royer co-convenor w s Faith leaders to council chair midon to the chair of the committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety Council member Brook pinto and
085to all the distinguished members of your committee good afternoon I'm Irwin Royer representing the W seven Faith leaders which I co-convener Karen Curry Reverend Kerry could not be here today but sends her highest regards we both want to thank you for this opportunity to testify you may be familiar with me and my other capacities as director for Community engagement and Partnerships at East River Family strengthening collaborative it was East River Family strengthening collaborative along with the Anacostia coordinating Council and the east of the river clergy police Community Partnership that helped to establish the W seven Faith leaders in 2019 to address the increase in violence in our Ward I am honored to testify before you today in support of the confirmation of Pamela A Smith as our next police chief acting Chief Smith has brought
086an energy to our city that is critically needed at this time she hit the ground running making herself accessible and accountable to members of the community at every level after only being on the job barely two weeks she was already showing up at Community meetings such as the w s and8 clergy and Faith leaders meetings showing up uh on foot in places where people told her she needs the needs were and showing her compassion and commitment to an Engaged approach to policing fitting right in with the many MD officers already dedicated to community engagement and community policing and challenging those who were not she continued to show up and follow up listening to the concerns of community and taking prompt action acting Chief Smith promised and has already delivered on having MPD increase the the
087speed and efficiency in which perpetrators are arrested refusing to accept and we will look at it in next week mentality and maintaining the sense of urgency befitting the crisis state that we're in she's not afraid to take hard measures such as temporarily closing down establishments and her quests to face head on anything that intentionally or unwittingly feeds the atmosphere a sets up opportunities for violence to occur her profession ISM her energy yet strong compassionate leadership style and her willingness to keep showing up are taking our confidence and MPD to another level which is critical in light of the fact that violence throughout our city has been occurring at another level acting Chief Smith is right on time and well suited to Spur not only those who serve under her but all who encounter her to
088give our beloved City our all as co-convenor of the W seven Faith leaders and those who are engaged 7 days a week in efforts to stem the tide of violence Reverend Carrie and I wholeheartedly recommend that the council approved Pamela A Smith as chief of the District of Columbia's metropolit Metropolitan Police Department thank you so much um I actually want to start with you Mr Royster and Miss Laval um and thank you for for all of you for being here today um one of the things that I think is going to be really important for the chief is to make sure that we're um lifting up and collaborating with our Community Partners and in both of your capacity and working with her with different groups of community members and both hearing her ideas but sharing
089your ideas how have you found that type of back and forth relationship so I'll start um she has created a dialogue with the w seven and eight Faith leaders so we had have constant conversation it seems like with the chief uh very approachable um accepting of ideas um and there to listen thank you all anything to add that yes and I've had the opportunity to um to meet with her and speak with her over our Zoom meeting at the second district citizens advisory Council and she has made herself very accessible and um and interactive great thank you mam chair sure go ahead Madam chair may I ask answer that question as well sure but I was also going to ask you about plain cloes officers so if you can talk about both yes ma'am so
090I wasn't initially sold on the uh chief of police and originally it was because she came to one of the uh w 7 and8 uh clergy meetings at the mer Center in southeast and the original approach and I was looking at it on Zoom so I was not there in person um a couple of the remarks that she made it was like she told the clergy there like y'all need to back up off of my offices and so that wasn't the audience who was you know protesting jumping on cars in front of her Seven Police District it was some of the activists that then turned council members who were you know tough on her officers and being and being um kind of you know dismissive and off-put toward them so it wasn't it wasn't clergy
091uh doing that so it was it was it was just sort of off-putting um but we had a a later encounter at the Hill Country and it this was totally random um on 7th street I was getting ready to order and you know she walked up and was like you're not going to eat all that food I was like yeah I am and so just her you know her personal interactions and how she you know catches you um in conversation I thought you know that that moment right there kind of washed everything away because she was able to personally you know connect with me versus you know um previous time but in response to the plane Clos officers um I've been on both sides or all sides of um police good bad victim witness um
092offender um and it in my community I can speak in I've seen it in action and it works um I think that you know it in like it hampers police officers to be in a in a in a cloth uniform um when you are like going into um buildings or areas that are and I'm not talking people I'm talking about infrastructurally it's just not safe like gates are like you have iron gates that are are are not um that are just not safe that they potentially may you know have to jump over like the viral video that we all saw last year of the police officers chasing um the folks up in uh War five so um I think they you know it encumbers them to be in a uniform especially if you're doing Hands-On
093tactical work as far as crime suppression or or or um gun um suppression and you know I seeing it firsthand I think you know it it actually helped and if you look at the numbers and the statistics from when they were on the street you you did see some decrease in um the crime in those PSAs thank you very much I appreciate that and I am way over time I just wanted to briefly ask Mr Branch I know you're here as a resident as a public witness but given your experience both at Belo and with the mayor's office we hear often and we've heard even today a few mentions to well we used to do it a better way with community policing or more beat officers um are there strategies that you have seen in
094our past in the city that you think we need to be redeploying now when it comes to this type of empowerment that you're talking about great question yeah so ultimately um the investment in people is what most officers who have found who have found success with communities of color have kind of uh used they're um making it a more personable approach uh as a principal uh spending about a decade in the school and having sro's there I can tell you that and he's a ve very humble guy he probably wouldn't let me to say his name but uh officer Edwin Buckner was a Exemplar for what uh a school resource officer should look like um the investment he made in young people at ages you know 12 13 14 are still paying dividends at 30
095and 35 5 years old um and there were lives that were immediately Changed by the level of care and conversation and communication that this officer had with children with their families and with the broader Community um so we've seen less connectedness to the people that were're charged with serving a lot of times it feels like we're more so patrolling property versus really caring for people thank you very much thank you all council member Gray council member Parker thank you I plan to ask acting Chief Smith for her vision for bolstering mpd's performance in the district and I would ask the panel what success looks like for them um and if you have any recommended measures that the coun and MPD should be looking at for success for mpd's performance I'll go I'll go first sir
096um what success look like um I think what success would look like for me as a resident look at some of the stuff or the strategies in the past and I'm I'm talking about DC strategies that worked in the past and build upon what chairwoman Brooke has uh Brooke Pinto has started with um that bill you guys passed I believe it was this summer or before the summer recess and and just continue to be tough on crime and find what works for the district not co-opting um National Trends or national patterns and say oh this works for the district but actually um what works for us so I know you said previously uh uh council member uh Parker that you guys did it this year but we wish we would have had the council that
097we had now you know eight years ago uh that saw the same vision of putting money into the budget eight years ago if you if you understand what I'm saying so um continuing on the legislative track of appropriating that money for them to do the work but also looking for the community based strategies that work and the crime suppression strategies um that worked as well you any others want to share on that I would like to say something please um I've noticed over the years that police officers are now acting more as social workers and they're involved with a lot of Mental Health crisis situation I think police officers need to to establish a role as an authoritarian um Force more of enforcing applicable laws and less of befriending the community and and less of
098being a social worker do you know that the police officers often deliver footballs to truant students who are on the streets during the day in an effort to co-op them as friends and this sends the wrong message I think that the police officers need to to show a responsibility show um if I show more enforcement um that that is my time uh thank you all and I believe someone else wanted to share my apologies uh that is Ju Just very briefly when you ask what it what it looks like sounds like feels like it looks like uh children not running from police when they show up it looks like mothers not rolling their eyes and sucking their teeth when an officer shows up it looks like people not being afraid for their lives when police
099officers show up um it looks like families actually not getting lectured by officers when bullets fly through their windows and they're calling the police to support them as a victim and they're being told that they made a mistake just for living in the areas that they live in um so it looks like an approach where officers um who have a very tough job I come from a family of police officers um who have a very tough job still recognize the humanity of the people that they're here to serve I really appreciate that thank you all thank you Council Parker council member fruman thank you chair Pinto um I don't want I don't have any questions but I I again want to thank the panel for their testimony I do think some of these themes about
100ensuring a strong connection between the police and the community uh hearkening back in some ways to methods that have been used in the past that have succeeded in in making that connection strong so that you can get to a place along the lines of what Mr Branch was talking about uh very important also thank you for the suggestions about ways in which we can support the police and the acknowledgement that many of the issues that police have to deal with are mental health issues and there may be others who are better suited for that and looking for creative ways to um deploy the right resources to the to each problem so that our police our uh resources are are uh used for the the jobs for which they are the best suited so thank you
101very much for your testimony thank you council member fuman thank you all for being here in your testimony look look forward to working together thank you going to call our next panel of in-person public Witnesses Kendrick Curry pastor of the Pennsylvania a Baptist Church Kenneth Rand Jr Paramount Baptist Church Brent Sullivan public Witness Nina Murphy Martin fourth district citizens advisory councila oh if yes if you wouldn't mind sitting in the order that you're called uh I'll just make sure we can everybody we'd love to see that thank you all right Kendrick Curry Pastor from the Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church please go ahead when you're ready council member um pinto and chair of the committee and all of the distinguished members of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee good afternoon I am Reverend Dr Kendrick Curry
102a 20-year resident and pastor of the Pennsylvania AV new Baptist Church in Ward 7 it is an honor and an esteemed privilege to testify in support of the confirmation of Pamela A Smith as our next chief of beliefs because DC is in a state of emergency as it surpasses 200 homicides in 2023 the inability to solve disputes civil the sale of elstic drugs the proliferation of substance abuse and the Myriad of complex social determinants of Health resulting in senseless murders serial carjackings and other violence must stop we need a an Adaptive transformational and competent leader who will help traumatized families who live in fear and suffer from violence fatigue to feel safe acting Chief Smith has a plan to make DC safe while we're sleeping give the chief a chance to achieve our goal a
103uh acting Chief Smith has formed solid Community Partnerships with the first within the first couple of weeks she's been here she showed herself friendly by showing up listening to and engaging east of the river um residents with her officers by her side she has taken time to understand District residents and continually seeks to win their trust by being responsive to concerns being present at crime scenes with the top brass and creating a a tough on crime culture such as setting curfews and other things she is an honest and transparent person she tells it like it is and she has heard the cries of the residents seing their Affliction and is showing up in the midst of the Brokenness because she cares for people and the quality of life give the chief a chance to beat
104back crime acting Chief Smith is pois to relentlessly disrupt criminal behavior and she suggests that she will not only use the traditional Playbook but rather she will be intentional in getting guns and the people who use them off the street she will use all the tools that are disposal from a modernized crime lab to community policing to holding offic accountable when necessary to really begin to problem solve around how to clean up neighborhoods so their residents feel safe says safe and are less traumatized this will take time but we must understand that there will be some upticks and violence but yet in the long run I believe that acting Chief Smith's methodical continual clearing of the streets and open air drug markets and appropriately locking up offenders while yet supporting uh the to address the
105uh root causes of social determinance that will lead to juvenile and adult engagement in crime she will do all of these things and do them extremely well acting Chief Smith has come for to DC for such a time as this and as a pastor whose Ministry is continually on the front lines of closing disparities eliminating violence in the community I prayerfully and wholeheartedly urge you to confirm Pamela A Smith as Chief of Police of MPD and I ask the mayor and the councel to give the budget required to eradicate the violence in the district of Colombia and keep residents safe loose Chief Smith and watch the downward shift in crime happen as I State this prophetically give the chief a chance thank you very much Pastor Curry next we'll turn to Kenneth real Jr Paramount
106Baptist Church good afternoon chairperson pinto and to all of the fellow committee members I am Reverend Kenneth riolan Jr the pastor of the Paramount Baptist Church that is uh that that resides in Ward 8 I Pastor in this great city of Washington DC uh proudly but sometimes painfully I've preached funerals in this community of those that have suffered gun violence my task here today is to testify to testify is to show evidence or proof of something that has happened to that end I emphatically support the confirmation of acting Chief Pamela a Smith and here is why I testify she's competent over 25 years of law enforcement experience regarding regardless of others opinion of that experience not only is she competent but she's an effective Communicator I've been in her presence and watched her effectively get
107her point across to those that needed to understand I've watched rooms shift as she communicated her concerns and her convictions to those that were listening not only is she competent and an effective communicator but she's compassionate I've watched the acting Chief in her interaction with mothers of victims of violent crimes and how she consoled them as they mourned the loss of their children she's not only competent and a communicator and compassionate but she's connected I had her I saw her firsthand come to a community event and yes there were other officers with her but there was not an Entourage as a matter of fact as as some wanted to get close to her and those that were protecting her were about their business of protecting she shoed them away and allowed the community to connect
108with her dare I even say she got on the dance floor and did the electric slide with the community she's not only competent Communicator compassionate connected she's courageous because courage is approaching an issue in the face of fear not in the absence of fear and in a season such as this when others have turned to go the other way she's run to the issue finally I celebrate her conviction dare I say this work is a calling something that I'm Vaguely Familiar with she's grounded and centered in her faith and that brings me Comfort to have a chief that is not self-reliant but is Guided by her faith and convictions acting Chief Smith embodies characteristics of the greatest leader to have ever lived and with similar verocity I follow him I also choose to follow acting
109Chief Smith thank you thank you so much much next we'll turn to Brent Sullivan public witness thank you thank you very much this year hopefully there is a comprehensive plan based on legislation introduced and passed at the council including targeted and thoughtful interventions on accountability by investing in preventions and ending the cycles of incomprehensible negligence we can protect victims and provide oversight to ensure speedy and accurate responses to the proliferation of recklessness and disregard for the truth within the police Department if some of that language sounds familiar to you I took it from chairwoman Pinto's Instagram account this morning 7 months ago chairwoman Pinto raised some troubling allegations I'm sure that the new Chief is aware of them as she was at this meeting but I will summarize them very briefly MPD officers to include
110Charles vigiani Shan Rooney Joseph trainer Daniel Goen Leslie Parsons and others worked collaboratively in support of falsified medical exams to support a fraudulent affidavit this affid David was written by Charles vigani and assistant us attorney Jeffrey nestler it was then signed by judge Russell Cannon the matter was then adjudicated by more than seven judges at two trials over four years with more than 25 highly incompetent assistant United States attorneys from the general crime section most notably the Lead Supervisor Katherine Ernest the court granted a full acquittal after both the witnesses the police and the US attorney's office changed their narratives numerous times nothing about this is special this happens every single day in the district the Court ruled that Charles vigiani had exhibited quote at best a reckless disregard for the truth for excellence to
111be transferable it must actually exist and so a complaint was filed yet again in response under the direction of Ben hayon the current chief of staff to the police chief of police and John Newson of the Internal Affairs office the staff uh flatly refused to reopen the case claiming it was okay to lie if a witness lies in his testimony as a result a new law was passed pass by the council and sadly last week I was informed by Kevin Whitfield in the office of Charles Allen that chairman mendin uh CH chairman Mendon excuse me neglected to allocate the funding uh I found out an hour ago by bla stum that that is in fact true somehow as of Tuesday night Sergeant vigani was served with a subpoena and it appears that he is actively
112working in the Seventh District on homicide investigations his supervisors say that they had absolutely no idea of the Court's ruling on his misconduct yet every day the lack of accountability within the police department has a direct impact on the lives of washingtonians a lawyer who falsifies evidence would be disbarred however if you're a police officer somehow you receive a medal of value and a promotion to homicides it's no wonder that the city has officer retention problems why in the world would an honest and competent officer want to work alongside someone who's dishonest and unskilled Chief Connie offered to send over a set of documents and meet with chairwoman pinto her staff for Evan morof states that the chairwoman refused and and instead participated in a telephone call with Ben Haymon quoting the MPD the council
113member has been directly briefed with further context around the allegations according to Mr morro the chairwoman can't remember this phone call in closing I I know my time has expired but when I submitted my complaint I was hoping for a legitimate investigation wishful thinking when I submitted the material to The chairwoman Wishful Thinking as for the new chief of police for Washington DC I will be bringing this yet again to her office will she invest tigate this thoroughly or is that simply wishful thinking thank you for allowing me to go over thank you Mr civan next we'll hear from Nina Murphy Martin fourth district citizens advisory Council good afternoon and greetings chairwoman Pinto members of the Judiciary Committee Chief Pamela Smith who will be watching I'm sure members of the Metropolitan Police Department deputy mayor
114for Public Safety our CAC colleagues ANC and all residents and businesses of the fourth district and our Citywide DC government thank you to the committee for allowing me to speak and coordinating on this honored day my name is Nina Murphy Martin I a resident of the fourth district and the 4D CAC committee chairperson I submit this testimony on the nomination of Pamela A Smith to become the next chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department on behalf of the fourth district ciens advisory Council who last night on Tuesday September 26th voted unanimously on making her her full our full support of being our next Chief of Police I'd also like to share that I had the privilege of meeting Chief Smith for the first time back in March of this year when our Third District
115CAC chair hosted a women's event for Metropolitan Metropol Police Department leadership women and leaders this was an amazing opportunity because I just left a conference that spoke on deia initiatives and to be able to meet Chief Smith at that event was just right on time she talked about Equity with her excitement as we met before the event began and I just knew at that moment someone who was bold enough to talk about equity in a time when everyone didn't really want to hear about it was was priceless to me I also met Chief Smith before that on one of the panels that we had in our fourth district ANC meeting and also on our fourth district CAC meetings before then that night I also learned that Chief Smith was a member of the finer women
116of Z the F sori Incorporated in which I am a daughter of that sorority I am humbled to know that she's an also humbling person not only that she immediately embrace the questions that I personally have for her she immediately made me feel warm and welcome no matter what reason why I came a lot of people were were confused you came all the way over to Third District to have a chat of course there's many women in leadership in MPD who I wanted to make sure that we got to see I was able to meet her also during the time when she became the chief of police for Park Service while we both worked under the US Department of the Interior at that time I was just another employee government employee cheering her on as
117this was a remarkable inroad for the United States Department of the Interior one of her commitments to re-engaging the communities by implementing the one walk a week for 52 weeks for all seven districts for 364 walks a year was just impeccable to me she said that the walks was a key and critical way to let communities know she is serious about engagement during her meeting update on the August 17th 2023 Public Safety situation discussion she discussed many upcoming initiatives in a whole government approach which showed me that she is willing to work in a collaborative environment the 4D CAC EC again voted yesterday as I shared earlier and for her to be our next chief of police it shows that she is experienced we've looked at her resume we don't have to go over it
118again she's very humble every time we meet her or cross paths with her she takes the time no matter what as many have already tested before we are thankful for chief Smith's leadership and we look forward to working with her attending our 4 dcac initiatives and collaboration with our 40 Outreach police officers and some of our community members left a few questions for chief Smith one of the questions were about a month ago there was a discussion about the upcoming 211 initiatives that will be able to help navigating social services such as mental health issues Mental Health Services and help MPD officers to just pick up the phone and call 211 or even citizens to be able to call 211 we would like to know whether her plans for MPD to help those navigate those
119211 Services if they're unknown to MPD fourth district members also another question that was asked amongst our membership was what kind of programs is Chief of Police thinking about to help a sworn officers get the help they need to take the test for promotions how do they look at promoting from within what training opportunities does MPD have to help officers with taking the test to make them rank for promotions with the understaffing the next question with the understaffing of MPD what types of mentorship and Mentor mentee programs does MPD have and or consider implementing for sworn officers Cadets and professional staff members thank you so much for allowing me to speak thank you so much Miss Martin appreciate your testimony and all of your testimony today and all of the opportunities for engagement that you
120have already had with acting Chief Smith is really great to hear um Mr Sullivan I just want to acknowledge your concerns um I absolutely agree with you that we have to have an accountable police department and that's really a central aim of the office of police complaints um and the expanding of that office and we're going to uh do everything we can next year to make sure all of those reforms and Provisions are are fully funded as well um I'm sorry for your experience with the US attorney's office um in in pursuing some of these cases because that is what their function is um in in making sure that there's accountability and that they're followed up on so thank you for for being here and bringing those to light again um I want to ask
121uh both of our pastors about the specific role the faith community does have now but can play more of a part in in Partnership with MPD and our next chief U we talk a lot about community building and starting with the family starting with our faith leaders but how do you envision we can leverage the relationships and the perspective of our uh Faith leaders people of Faith with MPD specifically thank you uh Council chair Pinto one of the things that I think with regard to Faith leaders and MPD in terms of its connection is what uh acting to Smith has already sort of started and that's open honest dialogue and I think it begins there she knows how to show herself friendly and in showing herself friendly she's showing up she's meeting us at breakfasts
122she's meeting us at Coffee she's meeting us at a variety of different places so that we can begin to strategize about how we get closer uh a world that would include the uh houses of worship or the church in particular for me would start to look like more and more pastors um being able to actually counsel and talk to officers having gone through challenging situations it would look like um pastors and officers working together to help young people with regard to Safe passages I I see a lot of partnership ship opportunities with this it's not just engagement and the dialogue that's first but it's then the action and the specific projects that we can begin to do together that will help make a difference one of the things that we will look at is things
123like faith and blue what does that really mean and how does that really move us forward another thing that we could begin to look at are having discussions in town halls that allow uh residents to come together with faith leaders and with MPD and have intimate discussion Mr very briefly the other the other piece I think is very critical is as as we build we being the faith community and specifically uh pastors and leaders as we build relationship with the chief and the brass of the Metropolitan Police Department we can then demystify some of the perception that our congregants and we we have the opportunity to serve hundreds at a time if if our message is that these are this is not these are not the boogy men and women um of our district if
124we can have that message then it will then just permeate throughout the community and and we have a different level of conversation uh between uh faith-based uh communities and and the police department thank you so much I think that's such an important part of how we move forward and just like it took a lot of different things to get us into this crisis it's going to take a lot of strategies to get us out appreciate that appreciate you all um I'm going to turn to my colleagues for any questions they may have council member gray council member Parker council member fruman thank you very much Cher Pinto uh I want to thank our Witnesses I think the role of the faith community and Pastor Curry and I have worked together on various things over the
125years um is critical here the support that you are offering to the acting Chief is U really important to me and so thank you for your testimony today I also will say that the testimony regarding accountability is is really important testimony and so thank you for coming forward with that we need to support our officers in as many ways as we can but where there is serious misconduct uh if we want to have the confidence of the community we need to take action to respond to that and show willingness uh to police ourselves in a sense so um thank you for for all the testimony I look forward to hearing from Witnesses throughout the day thank you so much council member fuman thank you all to our public Witnesses for being here today I appreciate
126it um as a reminder if folks missed the time they were called for their panel but then arrived in person if you can please let akima know on my team um and we'll make sure we we get you in on a panel um all right we are now going to call our next panel of public Witnesses Daryl K white public Witness Kevin regy public witness Kathy Henderson ANC commissioner fd06 and 5D courtwatch and you can give it right to um thank you okay hi okay uh Christine wari public witness Karen Gul Third District MPD citizens advisory Council all right welcome Kevin regy uh please go ahead and have you're ready good afternoon council member Pinto members and staff of the committee I'm Kevin reggy my family and I reside in the Palisades neighborhood in ward
1273 both I and my wife Elizabeth have been DCT residents for almost 25 years I'm here today to testify in support of the nomination of Pamela Smith to the position of chief of the Metropolitan Police Department acting Chief Smith has more than 25 years of law enforcement experience including serving as a chief of police for the United States Park police as you noted in your opening remarks council member she began her career with the US Park police in 1998 Rising through the ranks as sergeant lieutenant Captain major and deputy chief until she until she was ultimately promoted to Chief of Police becoming the agency's first African-American female Chief in the agency's 230e history Smith joined the MPD in May 22 uh as the chief Equity officer where she has made a significant impact in a
128brief period leading to her promotion in April 2023 to assistant chief of police Homeland Security Bureau I believe the acting Chief is imminently qualified to serve as our next chief of police and I strongly recommend that she be confirmed to that position at the earliest practical juncture I should stipulate that I do not have a public a law enforcement or Public Safety background I am testifying today in my individual capacity not on behalf of any organization my family and I uh love this city uh and as longtime residents we are deeply committed to its future which we believe is bright but we worry of late about the increasingly challenging local and Regional Public Safety environment most especially the impact of crime on our most vulnerable residents in neighborhoods that are contending with acute Public Safety
129challenges on a daily basis all those who live and work here perhaps most especially especially the women and men who proudly serve uh in the MPD deserve the opportunity to Ser to be served by exceptional law enforcement leadership I believe that acting Chief Pamela A Smith is ideally suited to now take on that crucial leadership role thank you for the opportunity to testify today thank you very much Mr reggy uh Kathy Henderson ANC 5D 06 and 5D Court watch thank you uh chairwoman and Council member Pinto uh good afternoon uh ladies and gentlemen and staff uh I am Kathy Henderson I'm serving my 11th term as an effective advisory neighborhood commissioner and I created 5D Court watch to close the revolving door on crime and I will commence to read my testimony into the record
130I began the practice of community walks with the mayor chief of police and agency Representatives during my first term in office to address violence and disorder in my new community I created the landlord Roundtable initiative to hold negligent Property Owners including the DC Housing Authority accountable for problem tenants I created 5B Court watch in 2008 as I just stated in response to escalating crime caused mostly by repeat offenders that drain police resources these initiatives underscoring working with district and federal government Partners including the US attorney and Congress from and elanar Holmes Norton proved successful the resulting 64% reduction in crime is what we are fighting to hold on to in my community as the city faces a violent reality with I initially had 199 homicides from the written stats and I ran into the former
131city administrator Rashad Young on my way to this hearing and he informed me that wasn't correct it's now 209 I come here today today to urge you to prioritize getting our city the nation's capital back on track by putting Public Safety First put our residents and visitors first and protect us the first order of business is confirming Chief Pamela A Smith as the next police chief of the Metropolitan Police Department chief Smith comes to MPD prepared underscoring her 25 plus years of experience Rising through police ranks to ultimately the US Park police as Chief and serving as our interim police chief chief Smith has begun managing her Human Resources within the department to better respond to Rising crime while managing the reality of a shrinking police force she Smith is educated has professional experience life
132experience emotional intelligence and a firm spiritual Foundation which equip her with the necessary tools to lead MPD she has the tools to lead us out of the Meer of violence fueled in part by disenfranchisement and self-hatred and she wants the job Chief Smith stands in the face of a languishing But continuing defund the police campaign and steadfastly says she wants to be our police chief and she wants to improve our Public Safety for every DC resident and visitor I urge the council to vote to confirm Chief Smith and to work to reverse the legislative barrier barers that are helping to embolden persons who are killing robbing creating Havoc uh with seeming impunity the council and the Office of the Attorney General need to reconsider supporting funding unproven initiatives that have done nothing to improve Public
133Safety these groups have been directed to communities that some that have some record of Public Safety challenges and they are recreating Public Safety problems drug trafficking shooting people engaging in criminal activity in an attempt to establish accountability we deserve credible and accountable policing which is proven to advance Public Safety let us support Pamela A Smith as the District of Colombia's next chief of police and let us do the work to get back on track including utilizing credible support such as the National Guard the 38 other law enforcement agencies in the District of Columbia and a government government wide approach that Chief Smith is activating I'm happy to be joined by members of her sorority and that are part of the blue and white family I would urge every member of f Beta Sigma Incorporated who
134are members of MPD and throughout our government to get behind and all of MPD to support Chief Smith in protecting this community and I urge this Council to take the necessary action to do what is necessary to put us back on track and finally when I sat in this very seat back in June the homicide rate was 112 I implored you then as I implore you now to activate put political considerations aside activate the National Guard to stand with us to stand with us on every corner to help Patrol our city and to get us back on track we cannot allow people who are law Breakers to continue to be emboldened and thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you today thank you very much commissioner Henderson next up Christine wari public
135witness thank you and thank you um and good afternoon and thank you chair when Jan Pinto for allowing me to testify on the nomination of Pamela A Smith chief of police for the District of Columbia um my name is Christine wary and I had the distinct trust given to me by both former mayor Anthony Williams and the late mayor Marian Barry to chair the DC commission for women over over a decade this opportunity today has a special meaning for me because I already understand the steps nominee Chief Smith has been taken to confront domestic violence abuses of our children our domestic partners and our seniors domestic violence in the home becomes the root of what eventually happens on our streets I support panelist Smith's appointment for throughout her illustrious career she has seen how these
136actions impact our children our schools and our community as I mentioned earlier and under the leadership of Mayor Anthony Williams and the late mayor Marian Barry I had the great honor of course of serving as chair of the DC commission for women at a time when we really we had no budget no money but we persevered and we organized part of my role and that of my fellow Commissioners was to focus on underserved women who were suffering from welfare support loss abandonment and domestic violence one of my Commissioners who spoke today charita Whiting helped us organize a DC's commission for women Symposium with Kathy lanir and the DC Commission on domestic violence the Symposium had such an emotional impact on everyone who attended because the issue of domestic violence could not have been more poignant
137than the keynote speaker Mildred Muhammad's appearance and remarks as the estang wife of sniper John Allan Muhammad she had experienced domestic violence on a level that no one could fanthom given that her husband was gunning down innocent people in an attempt to scare to find her and to kill her she was a survivor of domestic violence and now she is an international Cru Crusader I feel confident that nominee Pamela Smith will do everything in her power to serve as our own Crusader and Elevate the issue to those most vulnerable sorry given them the strength to act and know that she and her team have their back while the Symposium happened over 20 years ago I was so impressed with the words of Kathy lanir who at the time Spearhead of the domestic violence division for
138the Metropolitan Police Department because the community residents also knew someone cared and they could become survivors with the support she showed that day and thereafter this as I understand is what nominee Chief Smith is doing and her actions already are not going unnoticed even in a few months she has been serving our DC government in our city for this reason and many other reasons I am proud to lend my support and become part of her mission to make the res of DC feel secure in their own homes on their streets and back in their communities thank you thank you very much Miss fori Karen Gul Third District MPD citizens advisory Council good morning well actually good afternoon honorable members of the DC city council and the Judiciary and safety committee thank you Madame chair Pinto
139for taking the time to hold this very important hearing my name is Karen Gaul and I'm here to provide my professional Community Service as the council member of the chief of police citizens advisory Council and also as a chairwoman of the Third District MPD citizens advisory Council of Washington DC a neighborhood watch Community leader and I work and I have all of the work highlights under ww ww. 3D cac.org I am also providing my additional Civic Service as a native Washingtonian and a lifelong Ward one resident my service leadership is in community engagement Public Safety social betterment Emergency Management preparedness disability rights Community program management zoning and planning education alcoholic beverage and cannabis regulation and business in Economic Development 3D CAC supports the Third District met Washington metropolitan police department and social betterment Public Safety
140Youth and community outreach programs as well as officer morale initiatives we believe that the benefits of an advanced sustainable comprehensive approach to Public Safety is possible in the district of Colombia with Citywide environmental changes conflict resolution programming that has long-term funding and supportive legislation and accountability we actively engage in the community on Levels by putting policies into practice working with all levels of the district government through building relationships finding common ground with Public Safety leadership and modeling Innovative programs and initiatives for the diverse population of the MPD Third District we are a we was asked for our input during the competitive selection process for NPD Chief when Chief Smith was appointed by our distinguished mayor Muriel Bowser to leave the Metropolitan Police Department our CAC membership was quite pleased we need a police chief that
141has the full support of the mayor MPD DC city council and the DC residents Chief Pamela Smith has an outstanding record of being focused and dedicated to law enforcement we support Chief Pamela A Smith because she is advanced in she is working on an advanced comprehensive approach for violence prevention and reduction in the district of Colombia we need innovative ideas and actions and to end the communal VI gun violence homicides car jacking jackings and many crimes in Washington DC Chief Smith has provided an Innovative Innovative approach and Leadership such as mandating that the executive Command Staff actively provide on the ground response and Industry with the other MPD officers ERS with this approach we have witnessed within the first week of Chief Smith's mandate and after suffering four consecutive months of audacious crime we witnessed
142that DC finally had some release of at least 7% in the reports in August last year 3D CAC peted a monthly interactive Community walk with MPD this community walk was consistent with block by block um Services Chief Pamela Smith came out to our community and she listened and she reviewed how we were doing the walk she participated and she made sure that the Comm commun the community now has a weekly effort in the district of Colombia this type of response is critically important and it's also helps everyone to understand the police and the in the community and it allows us to have much more productive um interactions with the police we feel that we can attain critical strides in public safety with this type of process we feel that we need an active coordinated Public
143Safety plan and we need oversight in all public safety plans we really feel that the police should be involved in the community in a way that the police know you and you know the police and chief Smith has demonstrated this by developing a collaborative and holistic approach with government community and faith-based leaders to combat the violence and provide a space for positive influences among the youth in our community we support Chief Smith because we believe that building bridges of communication dignity and safety is Paramount for all residents in the district of Colombia regardless of the ward that you live in it is with this knowledge that the men and women of the Third District MPD citizens advisory Council support Chief Pamela aith as the next chief of police for the Metropolitan the police department and
144we respectfully requested the DC city council confirm her nomination so that she may continue to pursue in ensuring that the nation's capital is safe for the citizens businesses and visitors thank you very much thank you very much Miss G and thank you all for your testimony um and Leadership and and sharing some of these ideas and what you do every day um I want to ask you commissioner Henderson about this idea around the National Guard and what how you you envision that being um most effective and helpful as we think about a nomination of police chief um and possible partners for her to do her work most effectively uh thank you uh chairwoman P Pinto for the question first the National Guard are here to help you know they help to put out forest fires
145I've seen their work up close and personal back in 1991 when we had an unfortunate Riot and um horrible attack on our police uh up in the Mount Pleasant Community the National Guard came in they assisted they didn't fire one shot they assisted MPD I'm glad that Sharon Pratt Kelly then mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly took the step it was unpopular then as it is now but she said she had to use every available resources and she had the guts to do that she called in the National Guard they came in I lived in that Community they implemented a curfew they assisted our MPD officers we had individuals who threw rocks bottles at the police they overturned a police car they set a police car on fire and it's very similar you know to the horrific
146levels of violence that we are being subjected to now as a city they came in again they didn't shoot they didn't fire one shot but they assisted in patrolling and it worked and we need every available credible law enforcement effort to patrol alongside with our officers who are working a tremendous amount of overtime and shifts and a lot of the officers that I've spoken to they support the assistance so we need to move past any political fear or embarrassment we are the nation's capital we deserve to be safe and we need to do everything to involve our partners to help us thank you thank you very much and miss call when you talk about um the ways that MPD can partner with the community and bring the community together Are there specific voices or groups
147that you think uh are either missing from the conversation now or need to be kind of bolstered in that partnership to bring them along as we seek to improve Public Safety yes ma'am there are a we have a city filled with counselors as the pastors indicated they're counselors but what we need to have is a community effort that really pulls together all of the counselors in the city with a great curriculum not one of those things where we have the um the Youth and Young adults come in and just get pizza there needs to be a very constructive programming that is allotted for um that type of service we also need to make sure that the um the there spaces that are being provided what safe spaces for children and young adults who have been
148consistently cycled through the uh the criminal justice system it's really clear there only a small number those those families they need to have help and then that the areas where families are consistently in that type of crisis mode the city really needs to come in and embrace those families to make sure that they have consistent help I one of the things that I did ask Chief Smith if she can um ask the mayor to have the Dy RS um program operate 24 hours a day so that MPD does not have their officers acting as babysitters we need to make sure that the government agencies that are in place are really critically um involved and then also it takes a village as you know we we consistently say that phrase not only on our website but
149in general because it really does take a village we were blessed to have the village to help us but we think that the village needs to be embracing the rest of the um children and young adults because they have this really antisocial um understanding of society and we need to come through and love them on that and I think MPD can work with um in partnership with um those type of groups thank you thank you so much I think that's so powerfully said and clearly your advocacy worked because that is a big basis of the curfew program now um is to make sure that kids who are out too late and violating the curfew aren't waiting police officers aren't waiting there with that all night that we can use DS as a um place to
150connect people with first and foremost their family hopefully um and if not their family then with um other child support organizations have awesome wraparound Services already in their programming and I think that needs to be funded fully and utilized okay thank you um well thank you all very much and really appreciate Miss bori as well your focus on domestic violence that is in addition to reducing eliminating the gun violence that we're seeing in the city um another one of the committee's top priorities and appreciate your effort there um and is so important as we think about who the best Avenue is to intervene early um we're seeing over 10% over 11% of our homicide cases are domestic violence related and I think it's actually broader than that when you think about broader intimate partner violence
151or issues that arise based on a relationship um and if we get those interventions right I think we can really drive down the homicide we're seeing as well um thank you all very much for being here before you get up I'm going to turn to my colleagues for a round of questions um in case we still have them uh council member gray council member Parker and thank you all for your testimony um and thank you in particular uh to commissioner Henderson for your work in Ward five one of the things I plan to ask acting Chief Smith later is about her her approach to handling misconduct on the force um during her predecessor's tenure the office of police complaints sustained 41 complaints for violations of the law or internal policies however only seven of these
152cases were uh resulted in a suspension and I wanted to ask you all of how might uh through Community Partnerships or Community engagement uh we ensure that we have an MPD force uh that is taking police misconduct seriously so that's a general question I'll open it up to anyone um what recommendations might you have for acting Chief Smith uh to ensure that we have a force that takes police misconduct seriously can I would you like to go first go ahead I thank you for the question I'd like to jump right in here um I've done the work that I've done in partnership with the police department and when this when I moved to my community in 1998 no one wanted to talk to the police openly no one wanted to partner with them no one
153even cared but they did want to make sure that the community was safe over the years we have worked very closely uh to build Partnerships by safety walks cookouts dialogues the PSA meetings where they've always been very well attended in my community and we should continue that I would ask this Council to hold regular roundt meetings just to listen uh to the public and to allow members of the public to address any concerns that they have regarding what's working with MPD and What needs Improvement you can have both you can support the police and still support accountability and moving forward the justice department came in around 2005 made a number of recommendations which MPD implemented which improved the department and we still need some improvement and I would certainly like to see some work done
154with the office of police complaints to make it more effective thank you for that am I last 40 seconds anyone else want to share I would like to um share I want to I am am a product of Washington DC's officer friendly program when I grew up I was little and we had officer friendly come to our school that's the first level of police engagement you have to start at a young age where the children do not fear the police because the police are not doing fearful things because they immediately are empathetic with children and they get to know our communities they get to know the families from that level then we also have um we have consistent monthly 3D CAC meetings that we hold at the on the last Thursday of the month and
155we just created an offering where we have it on Wednesday and Thursday we have the Wednesday meeting so that the police can get in touch with our Latino Community it's Spanish speaking only on Wednesdays and then we have on Thursdays we have the entire all of it we the Third District it covers Ward one ward two and parts of w five your ward and on portions of Ward six and then that's over 108,000 residents and then we have 12C um advisory um commissions within that um within that um space but what we need to do is just to have that constant connection we make sure that we have open dialogue every meeting we make sure that we network with all the DC agencies the the public safety walks which we started after the pandemic to
156make sure that people reconnected with the communities and that the anc's and police officers knew who the actual communities members was because you know most people go from their phone to the metro and they completely are oblivious we made sure that the that people can be responsible as elected officials and the MPD can be responsible as um members who supposed to protect and serve they have to come out block by block and meet with our um Community that's what I discussed with um Chief um Pamela Smith and she was happy sorry I see your time is up sorry thank you I'm I'm over time uh thank you for those recommendations thank you council member Parker I just chair I just add one last thing if I could um years ago I was working on a
157program called the Coban youth Safe Haven after school program and in fact it was so successful at Carver Terrace and um unfortunately it was it was funded through the Edward burn I think grants the Department of Justice but that's where the the mppd gave a police officer throughout the whole school year to be part of those dialogues after school and that's where it needs to begin and I totally I totally agree with yes the officer friendly program officer friendly program because that changed the whole dynamic and this was started actually in Japan called koban k o b a an but I'd be more than happy to to work with you on that and I participated in the community engagement thank you all yeah no okay thank you thank you so much no I think that's
158a great idea and definitely an area that MPD has been trying to get back to and that we should really lean into um to building more of those relationships so thank you all thank you council member Parker council member fruman uh thank you very much I I don't have any questions again thank you to the witnesses great to see you Kevin Christine Karen um uh Taran and I were together in the community engagement Academy this summer it was the real it was it was very educational and very helpful for me uh I want to Echo some of the things that I thought I heard in this T testimony and others which is uh the idea that accountability and support for the police might be intention I don't think the two things are intention I think
159one really important way for us to support our officers is to have strong mechanisms for accountability because the the bad actions of a few uh officers can work against trust in the whole core of officers and if we're going to be effective on the ground we need to make sure that we're holding folks accountable for for inappropriate behavior and so uh looking forward to working together with the witnesses and with the Department in um on that issue and I'll be curious to hear what the chief has to say on the subject than thank you got a lot more what this take to very brief yes it's a small comment I agree with council member fruman in regards to accountability there's a lot of underlying un reporting that is not happening within the MPD um a
160lot of the officers have complaints about uh where they're being bullied they're not able they're um they don't really have a chance to really talk talk as openly as they would like to and sometimes they don't feel as though they're being heard and so if that's the way they fill in the police department sometimes and and this is what I did notice since um Chief Smith came in board on board it has been a huge shift you can really tell the difference in the vibe where it seems like okay you know whatever it was that was fostering and and and keeping that bad behavior going it seemed like it changed and I noticed it now personally because I interact a lot with the officers all the time especially with the Third District and other districts
161well thank you so much for noting that I think it's really important as we try to tackle the Mental Health crisis that we're experiencing in the city in so many different communities and populations we also have to support the healthy mental health of our police officers um and I think that that's too often missing from the conversation so thank you thank you very much council member fruman uh thank you to all of you for being here today appreciate it we are now going to move on to our next panel of in-person public Witnesses um again if you can sit kind of an order of being called Laura Wilson Zeta fi beta sority Incorporated District of Columbia Joyce Robinson Paul public witness oh oh I'm so sorry about thatc commissioner and where are you ANC commissioner
162well I'm so sorry thank you so much for for being here commissioner I'm sorry for the inaccurate designation uh Jay Brown Community shoulders are there any other of our Witnesses who moved to in person that have not been called yet okay this will be our last panel of in-person public Witnesses good afternoon U members of the council committee and chair Pinto my name is Laura Wilson and I'm currently the DC state director of Zeta beta sority Incorporated it is with great pride and pleasure that I sit before you in my individual support of the confirmation of Metropolitan Police Department acting chief of police and my sority sister Pamela Smith as a concerned Citizen and member of Zeta via Sor Incorporated District of Colombia who is dedicated to serving the communities in the district I believe
163that acting Chief Smith is exceptionally qualified for this important position and her dedication to Public Safety is evident in her track record and achievements acting Chief Pamela Smith has demonstrated exemplary leadership throughout her career in law enforcement her commitment to community policing principles and building strong relationships between police force and the community it serves is truly commendable under her leadership the Metropolitan Police Department is beginning to see improvements in transparency accountability and Community engagement one of acting Chiefs Smith's most significant accomplish accomplishments thus far has been her emphasis on training diversity and inclusive inclusivity within the department her efforts to create a more diverse and culturally competent police force reflect a commitment to ensuring that all citizens are treated with fairness and respect regardless of their background or circumstances this approach not only enhances the
164effectiveness effectiveness of the police force but also builds trust within the community furthermore acting Chief Smith's dedication to modernizing law enforcement practices embracing innovative techn Technologies has helped improve the Department's overall efficiency Effectiveness in crime prevention and Public Safety acting Chief Smith took time to meet with the District of Columbia soures of zeta5 beta SW Incorporated recently she reassured us of her commitment to reduce the rise in crime we have all been witnessing recently and express her happiness and comfort that her sores would continue to provide support and programming that will hopefully Aid in alleviating the needs for individuals who could commit these crimes I wholeheartedly urge the committee to confirm acting Chief Pamela Smith as chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department her qualifications dedication and proven leadership make her an excellent choice
165for this crucial position and I have every confidence that she will continue to serve our community with integrity and distinction I'm hopeful that she will make the decision to confirm acting Chief Smith who undoubtedly is the right person to lead our City's police force into a safer and more secure future so those are my prepared remarks but I did want to speak to some of the comments I think I heard from some of the other Witnesses before um you know I agree that there is a war and a crisis right now the dist District of Colombia um but before you go into war you actually have to build your Army and the Army does not just simply involve the police force so we've had some community members we've had organizations testify and I'm sure that
166there more to come and I would like like to think that we are a part of that Army in helping to fight crime in the district so one of my hopes is that there is a part of the strategy for police acting police chief Smith that there will be more engagement with all of these Community Partners um I think as a leader myself I'm going to go back and re-evaluate how we can be more effective in some of the programs that we put on in the district of Colombia some of the things that I thought about as we were talking um I feel like right now the law the officers duties is obviously to enforce the laws and enforce order but you also have to have empathy when you're working with the community so a
167lot of the officers may or may not be people persons and I think training people on how to engage with a community might be one of the priorities that we put in regards to um training for the officers additionally I would love to see for there to be more mentoring programs within the community and that could involve we talked about using some of the the fraternities we can involve them in getting some of the youth the male Youth and additionally just training officers on building their soft skills in general so I'm sure a lot of them are quite capable of doing their their technical skills in terms of uh policing but those soft skills are important um and in terms of attracting more talent to the police force we have to build a brand for
168the police department that people want to be a part of and so that that's not an easy task to rebuild or redo a brand for the Metropolitan Police dep department but again we we've I think the theme throughout everybody's comments is rebuilding trust and so I believe once we begin to um have the officers out in the community rebuild the trust show the brand the new branding that we want to portray we will be able to attract more officers to the police department thank you thank you very much Miss Felson um commissioner Joyce Robinson Paul from 5 e01 good afternoon as thec commissioner at 51 many of my constituents would like to go on record supporting the nominee Pamela A Smith as chief of the Metropolitan Police Department first of all Pamela Smith was one
169of the manyc Commissioners who work free of charge tirelessly to make a difference in Washington DC chairman of the fifth district citizens advisory Council and chairman of the DC Federation of Civic associations all positions were served free of charge we are proud that Pamela Smith has been nominated to serve as our chief of police and we support this move Pamela Smith acquired the expertise experience and and knowledge to execute an excellent program that moves to change things our previous chief of police cited that he would like to see boots on the street that means to me out the police cars walking talking and engaging citizens on a regular basis community policing and officer friendly is the Hallmark of what our youth grew up under the cameras help but getting to know the constituents that police
170work with is more important so um I also would like to say um this morning I was asked by many to go up the street to Dunbar to speak on uh the young man that was killed I I really was so saddened by it that I did not talk to anyone in reference to that uh and said that I needed to get down here by 11: to to speak on the uh Public Safety Public Safety is crucial in our neighborhoods and it's not happening I just sat in on myc meeting the third Tuesday of the month when they basically said that they want to take 18 parking spaces from my my neighborhood on PE Street uh and they did they said this was Public Safety I don't think this is Public Safety I think the
171organizations the um the government needs to get together as a group and decide what Public Safety is you know because I had senior citizens about 20 of them say please don't take out uh parking spaces away but the eventual move was to do so we had um we had some um businesses we had about 10 businesses that said please don't take our customers parking spaces away but do do DDOT said we have to do it for uh school safety well school safety and Public Safety and all kind of safety it's the same thing stop thinking that you have to do one and and hurt the others in your Public Safety we really need a very good definition definition of what Public Safety is in this city but we want to make sure like next week
172I while I was here I stopped at the mayor's office and I said okay I've heard from the council and they're doing things what they would like to see see in our neighborhood but let's let's take y'all on a trip on this block where there are drug pushers uh falling down with the 247 store uh taking drugs laying on the off ground with the children watching taking over the seats for the bus stop where the bus stop will now not stop at that stop I have um raada checking on that why the stop is leaving my seniors and my uh students uh and going to the next stop which is two blocks away we are not in sync with Public Safety Public Safety means everyone Public Safety means let's take care of this public safety
173and we are hoping and we know after talking with um our a new acting Chief of Police that coming on board she will listen a little bit more thank you thank you so much commissioner Jay Brown from Community shoulders good morning my name is Jay Brown um my organization is community shoulders I want to start first by saying mayor Bowser you appointed Pamela Smith to this position Lindsay aaya Deputy Mayor Public Safety you are in close contact with Pamela Smith in this position we all we may not always agree with policies and procedures that are in place we might not have the same titles but we must agree that 209 murders is not acceptable in our community this is my formal invitation to you linday aaya pantos uh NAD and everybody else in the council
174if we want to really address Public Safety we got to get away from divisive titles in this community because this is a title driven Community we need to focus on Public Safety we need to Center Public Safety the reality is having Pamela Smith or Joe Blow appointed as Chief is not going to solve our crimes we're in a culture that is not built right now for addressing Public Safety the crime crisis that we in didn't start in July when Pamela Smith got into office has been here the things that she needs to do the things that she needs to implement we'll see that in time the things that she's speaking of focusing on the things that she's trying to accomplish working with um uh organizations that would normally be opposed we Embrace that Public Safety
175doesn't start with Pam Smith Public Safety starts with me it starts with the next citizen it starts with all 700,000 citizens that we have in Washington DC we are all a part of that system and every single day I have to look in the mirror and ask myself what did I do to contribute to Public Safety and I encourage every resident in this community in this city to do the exact same thing we have community members that are responding to the oppressive conditions that they live in in our community just like you all are responding to the results of those um oppressive conditions that they live in so we need to re consider our approach um I was going to read something but I think I just come straight from the heart I'm going run
176through it um in this title driven City our quality of life issues and and concerns often go unaddressed unheard or in fact under a rock the city culture of elitist and divisive approaches to Public Safety has distracted us from the goal of creating and sustaining peace for all the tone Crown rhetoric and the uh is the 2023 version of the war and drugs that Target to black and brown Americans those policies and pipeline to prison efforts did not and will not result in any meaningful reduction in the deterioration of peace in our community where it is a desire for peace it has to also be a commitment to peace that's from all of us peace has to be centered not compromised or exploited peace has to be shared embraced and protected before any of that
177peace has to be gained and it cannot be gained by engaging or participating in the violence of not investing in people and the lives of certain Community there's a lack of coping skills to deal with those lack of Investments and there are individuals who have to deal with those residual fears anxiety and hunger of that violence and it has developed into a culture of kill first eat now I'm going to die anyway mentality in our city it's not just senseless as Ki once said we're talking about kti kti said it was senseless at one time it's not it's not senseless unfortunately this is the reality of some and perception that has to be responded to by others the solution to this problem is getting to those stories beforehand in order to help people with how
178they respond to those realities and perceptions before they act on them simply just relying on NPD is foolish simply relying on me is foolish simply relying on you is foolish we're all in this together we all have a responsibility the answers will be community-driven initiatives that centers sustainable Empower empowering and inclusive action plans that's my time well thank you so much Mr Brown thank you to all of you um for that really powerful testimony um and I'm really moved by this idea of all of us needing to come together on this sometimes we think about I'll speak in first person sometimes I think about government and our responsibility um to serve residents and to improve Public Safety but I think you are exactly right in this circumstance it's going to require every single one of
179us to think about how we can be part of the solution um and as we talked about with the previous panel not one thing got us into this this current situation of of violence and not one strategy is going to get us out of it um how do you think we should start in having that conversation and really leading um the message forward and consistently with all of us we all talk to different people every day around the city um to take that responsibility seriously and go back to what the commissioner was talking about about how are we defining Public Safety where do we start we got we have to start by listening regardless of what position we hold in life what position we hold in government what position we hold in community um we
180have a lot of divisiveness in the leaders mentality in this community we come from different different life uh uh walks of life so normally we would um administer Justice according to those walks of life well our goal is to keep our children alive our goal is to keep our women alive our goal is to keep our men alive right so we have to focus and Center peace however and whoever decides to join that fight we have to Center peace and that's what we start at centering peace not centering MPD not centering Community shoulders not you know centering this person Center peace and I think that we we as resilient residents um have uh a lot to bring to the table when it comes to Cent Peace So if we just get away from pushing and
181forcing and top down and sideways politics we can get this done and I have if you want to talk to me anybody want to talk anybody want to reach out to me anybody who has interest in peace I have some uh Sustainable Solutions um I have things already written up that we can um Implement from my perspective from my part these are things that I want to contribute and like I said May B I know you listening so I'm extending this out this out to you Lindsay aaya and anybody else who wants to listen so I don't want to hear anything in the future about these people oppose us and they don't want to work with us um here here we are at the table we got 209 deaths we need to do something different
182thank you I um recently uh councilman Zachary Parker set up a a meeting where we would take a walk in the community found out later that the uh principal of the school said no she has to work within the building and and she is not coming out in the community so that's a no no you know you have to work with the community when you are part of a full school but that was the response that we got and she said I'm an educator and I'mma stay a educator and I'm not coming out the building well that's not good well so we didn't have that walk that day she came on zoom and she talked about that we have got to stop playing like this is just a school problem it is not just a
183school problem the students in my neighborhood are smoking drugs one block away in the alley down the street up the street next door across the street and I have reported it to the school and they said until they come in the building we are not responsible so as he said it's too many factions where people are saying that's not my call right that's not what I should be doing thank you just very quickly um I work with some of the organizations already that were here but I would love to see where we could have a town hall session or something similar with a lot of the ANC Commissioners get all of these different organizations in a room hear from the anc's what the people are actually wanting and needing and coming up with an actual
184tangible list of things that we can do and commit to to address some things immediately and there are enough organizations in Washington DC that we can have an impact and make something happen quickly thank you thank you so much I really appreciate all this and I think the consistency whether it's a title or an organization or a vantage point that sometimes gets so uh projected as though it's so Stark and singular or if you're an educator or a faith leader or government we all have to be in this together um and I really really appreciate those messages and look forward to working with all of you on carrying forward that mission I'm now going to turn to my colleagues for any questions they may have council member gray council member Parker you I really appreciate
185the panel's testimony I want to also thank commissioner uh Joyce Robinson Paul for her many years of dedication to W five and her community um I also want to underscore uh Mr Brown your comments around it requires all of us pitching in to turn things around here in the city I couldn't agree more and I would reiterate that we need a comprehensive Public Safety strategy and I would argue uh we don't have one and if there is one that is being implemented behind the scenes within MPD it's not one that the public knows and to your point it's not one where everyday residents could uh say they are playing a part in advancing um and so I I have less of a question uh but more so just reiterating what I heard from this panel
186I will say that uh we're at a time uh of uh urgency here in the city as violence is continuing um and what I heard from you especially commissioner Robinson Paul is this continuous um uh claim that I hear from residents that they are reporting that they are trying to do their part they're going Toc meetings they're joining walks uh but they're continuing to run into dead ends um and my hope is that with um new leadership at MPD um and hopefully soon with a comprehensive Public Safety strategy that we'll hear less of that as we move ahead so again thank you to this panel and chairperson pent I'm going to turn it back over to you great thank you so much council member Parker council member fruman thank you very much chairperson Pinto uh
187I I too want to thank the panel for their testimony I don't I don't have any questions but I'm uh very grateful for the testimony and the spirit of all working together to tackle this public safety enormous Public Safety challenge that we face thank you thank you Council muman thank you all very much appreciate you being here all right that concludes our inperson public Witnesses we're now going to turn to our next several panels of virtual public Witnesses before turning to our nominee Brenda Lee Richardson PSA 702 Outreach committee Deborah Steiner public witness Monica Hopkins ACLU of the District of Columbia Sandra seager's concern residents against violence cor Masters Barry ausua Ali NAACP Patrick Burke Washington DC police foundation and Monica Ray Congress Heights partnership excuse me for the order we're going to start with
188Kora Masters Berry give you all a moment to join the zoom all right cor Masters Barry Public witness please begin whenever you're ready Miss Barry if you can hear us your video and sound is still off okay we're going to move on to Brenda Lee Richardson PSA 702 Outreach committee we'll come back to you uh good day chairman pinto and other distinguished council members my name is Brenda Lee Richardson I am a w 8 resident and the facilitator of PSA 702 Outreach committee I am honored to support the confirmation hearing for Pamela Smith as the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department although Ro w 8 is ravaged with crime and violence our PSA is taking a more proactive approach to addressing the issue of gun violence and it is indeed a daunting Endeavor the MPD
189outre community outreach team organized an incredible Paint and Sip for 80 children in our PSA from Garfield Hills Woodland Terrace Langston Lane and Emanuel Baptist Church summer camp it was one of the most awe inspiring events I have ever seen the highlight of the momentous occasion was watching Chief Smith and Commander Mel of 7 D played football with the children we were blessed to see our new police chief on her third day on the job I was impressed because she took the time to greet us acknowledge us and it was not just a photo op I am not interested in deploying the National Guard to save Ward 8 from the plunge into more devastating trauma grief and incarceration as a result of the growing gun violence however I do believe that we owe MPD a
190huge refund when we defunded the police we have criminals we gave criminals more Liberties than law-abiding citizen especially those of us that live in disfavored communities and continue to live in an occupied state with these M miscreant who unlawfully descend on our defenseless neighborhoods this is quite disturbing Chief Smith has a tough job ahead of her but with her experience at the US Park police and serving as an ordained minister she is uniquely qualified to turn the tide that binds us with the uptick and gun violence and carjackings chief Smith will not be able to conquer this battle alone with MPD she needs troops from the health department Behavioral Health 911 Recreation D do and of course the people the people must be forthcoming and report the truth about what they see without fear of
191Retribution from the asant the 911 operators must be kind to those of us who live in disfavored neighborhoods so we will report what we see more often anonymously rather than being judged for making the call loud music is a military tactic for prisoners of war the loud music in residential areas cripples our mental well-being and is the impetus for pop-up parties that elicit Behavior by criminals who do not even live in our neighborhoods we need more police on the street to protect us I will end with this note as I wholeheartedly support the confirmation hearing for Pamela Smith as the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department the Constitution says we the people not the rich people or poor people not the black people or white people but we the people of the United States in
192order to form a more perfect union not a divided Union but a more perfect union establish justice not crime violence or Insurrection but Justice to ensure domestic tranquility provide for common difference promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity ity and in closing uh chairman Pinto I would like to extend an invitation to you and the members of your committee to come to my house on a Friday or Saturday night at nine o'clock for tea to see what we are exposed to on the streets of w 8 it is shameful and I don't want to be sitting here 10 years from now having this same conversation thank you so so much thank you very much Miss Richardson and I'll take you up on that I'd be happy to
193come over for tea next we will turn to Kora Masters Berry public witness good afternoon sorry for the um the stuff with me not being able to turn the camera on but I'm here uh my name is core Masters Barry as you can tell I have a little slight cold I am the former first lady of the District of Columbia and I'm the founder and the CEO of the southeast tennis and learning center and the recreation wish list committee where we work to change the trajectory of the lives of Youth we serve in the w a community we have been open since 2001 and we've served over 10,000 young people we we operate in a community that many of the young people that you see getting in trouble come out of and before I go
194into my testimony I just want to make this statement because I don't want to forget it obviously we have a problem with crime and obviously we have a problem with crime and young people but the one thing that really bothers me and I just want to make a record of it I think uh sharid whing may have made a reference to it where there are young people who are troubled and getting in trouble for every one of those there's 10 in w a going to school not getting in trouble kids can live in a home on one side of the street and go get up in the morning and go to school and do everything they're supposed to do and maybe the house across the street is the opposite so the overall generalization The Stereotype
195that the children in w 8 are running wild and they're all criminals bothers me we have kids on national uh scholarship uh list we have kids going to college on scholarships we have kids doing great things now that being said we also have children that come from homes whereas Miss Whiting said and I agree with her that we need to do something about the homes and the parents and and in some cases it may even be and I want to talk to the police and uh and anyone else to talk about how we can come up with this um with a system or some kind of a program where we can counsel not just the kids but the parents we have a lot of young parents who don't don't know how to they don't know
196how to parent and so the kids end up being being supervised and raised by children and that's when you have a young man who died at 11 years old from hijacking a car or still in a car gets killed and his mother comes on TV the next day and says he was the man of the house that is what we have to work on because when you have somebody at 11 years old the man of the house that only means one thing that you're coming in that house with things that you have no cap capacity to buy and you're letting that happen so now when something bad happens to them you blame the police I think people need to put a mirror in front of their themselves and start talking and I say that and
197I can say it with with judicious I can say it with with uh any kind of of authority because I have watched these kids come in my building for 22 years I know who they are I know the difference in the kids who are being parenting well and kids who are pretty much on their own so that being said I'll get back atlc we focus on the advancement and well-being of our children through a host of disciplines supporting A sound mind body and spirit the existence of nurturing nurturing stable and safe communities in which our children can live and player essential to their development and future success that is why I am so delighted to speak on behalf Act of acting chief of police Pam A Smith who I call Chief Pam becoming the next
198chief of police of the Metropolitan Police Department chap Pam is a truly inspirational and informa and transform transformal leader she will be the change our community and this city needs she will work and to create the environment in which our children can Thrive and grow and we can be safe as a longtime resident of the city it is comforting to talk with someone like Keith Smith who understands profoundly the social and economic challenges faced by too many of our residents and the resulting psychic that has been reinforced over time yet she does not let these realizations Cloud her perspective or Vision on what re what residents need to feel safe and secure Chief Pam don't play about crime I've had many conversations with her she has the insight and she has the compassion and she
199understands the community but she does not play when it comes to crime and and I love that about her Kei Smith is without a doubt a compassionate person she but she is Relentless in her commitment and sense of Duty to eliminate the scorge of crime activity that has per that has permeated our city which she F which she found sorry my voice I felt heard I felt protected I felt understood and Miss Barry I'm just going to ask since you're a bit overtime if you can try to summarize okay well in summary I commend uh commend Maya Bowser on her Superior on her superb nomination I urge the council to vote affirmity for this nomination so we as a city can Embrace this new era and Lead our support and collaborating with her and speak
200about the business of change but I want to add because I am rep I am representing an organization Southeast Tenison Learning Center I do want to add also in addition to her understanding of of the community and her decision and her I'm sorry her determination to fight crime she is also a person who understands policing I have seen half a dozen police and then I'll go sitting in cars up and down the Avenue and different places even in front of my house they take naps in front of my house since she has been here I have seen police out of those cars on those streets they talk to people and they but they also supervising for the lady who spoke I don't know her name that the police should be more authoritarian and not be
201Community oriented she lives in a different community so she should speak to that in her community but in our community the connection between the police and the and the and the parents and the children in the community is essential so that when they come they can feel like they're there to help us and we don't see them as an enemy so let's give her a chance and see what she does and thank you uh council member for allowing me to do this thank you very much Master Barry um and thank you for all that you have done to support young people in our city and and thanks for highlighting the very important truth that the vast majority of young people in our city are doing wonderful things um less than 1% of our young people
202are engaged in in these types of uh crimes and activities and um appreciate you highlighting that and hope you recover soon from your cult thank you Deborah Steiner public witness Monica Hopkins ACLU of the District of Columbia good afternoon chairwoman Pinto members of the committee and Council I'm Monica Hopkins executive director of the ACLU of DC and I'm here on behalf of our over 14 th000 members across all eight Wards our complete written testimony has been submitted but today I will focus on two important issues facing a new MPD Chief specifically mpd's role in a comprehensive public safety system and officer accountability we have seen significant shifts this year towards dealing with our Public Safety challenges through legislative carceral approaches that could adversely affect people's civil rights and civil liberty many of these approaches rest
203on the idea that MPD will continue to be at the center of responding to public safety issues we are deeply concerned about this false equivalency of MPD as an agency with a comprehensive public safety system this false equival equivalency is reinforced by the very scope of this committee Judiciary and Public Safety a committee Cent Ed on criminal justice and carceral responses when public safety system must include all agencies in the city equating MPD with Public Safety creates an overreliance on policing stretching police resources thin makes recruiting and retaining officers difficult and leads to unnecessary traumatizing interactions between police and District residents this is why it's so important that as we try to confront our Public Safety challenges we focus on standing up Public Safety interventions that don't solely rely on police and position MPD as
204one tool among many in addressing Public Safety needs reducing burdens on the department and more importantly contribute to safer communities our written testimony Miss Hopkin I'm so sorry to interrupt if I can ask everybody to make sure you're on mute if you're not testifying Miss Masters bar you are off mute go ahead Miss Hopkins thank you our written testimony highlight specific measures that we along with Coalition Partners have supported to date we urge the committee to support a more comprehensive approach to Public Safety asking Chiefs acting Chief Smith about how she sees MPD within a broader system of Public Safety how she plans to work with agency partners to help create and Implement a broad vision of Public Safety and her plans to support a comprehensive Public Safety approach both as the permanent chief of
205MPD and as an agency director among a broader Coalition of executive agencies needing to address Public Safety needs in a wider variety of ways where police continue to play a major role in public safety it's important the new chief prioritizes officer accountability for problematic interactions with Community m members when the public perceives MPD leadership not prioritizing accountability it erodes community members trust in police and undermines the law enforcement's legitimacy without this police lose their ability and authority to function consistent and meaningful accountability for misconduct builds Community Trust and with it strengthens the trust and cooperation between harmed communities and the police however as our written testimony highlights prior leadership of MPD issued low levels of discipline for violations of MPD policy or District law in 21 and 202 the office of police complaints found MPD
206officers to have abused their power by verbally harassing and using unnecessary Force against the public including children making false reports and failing to follow Department uh procedures specifically OPC executive director Michael Tobin noted in in a letter to Chief kti particularly with citizen complaints MPD has demonstrated on repeated occasions over many years and several police Chiefs that the department is not willing or able to provide accountability because accountability and public trust is so important to community safety we urge the committee to ask acting Chief Smith for actionable goals for ensuring accountability particularly for handling serious misconduct cases that harm members of the community it should also noted this lack of accountability has a huge financial cost to the city the taxpayers a cost of financial resources that then depletes other agencies within the public safety
207system to ensure MPD stays funded the committee should ask acting Chief Smith how she plans to approach accountability and disciplinary issues differently we look forward to hearing acting Chief Smith's answer to these questions about mpd's role in a public saf system and our plan for officer accountability to increase the Department's legitimacy and build Community Trust and we look forward to partnering with the council and all agencies in building a truly comprehensive public safety system thank you thank you very much Miss Hopkins next we will turn to sandre seager's concerns citizens against violence or crave um good afternoon um I am sandre s seager's W8 resident and co-founder and convenor of crave which stands for concerned residents against violence C consist of seven members who are well established in the community derell Gaston Reverend Anthony Marley
208Anthony mman SV Williams Pastor David venal and Lynwood Johnson crave is in support of the nomination of Pamela Smith for the next police chief of MPD the council's Committee on Public Safety and Justice is to to ensure safety for all citizens within the boundary of the District of Columbia in an effort to make it safe this committee must enact laws to do so the first line of making it safe is the police department for the police department to be effective it needs capable leaders it needs a capable leader hence we believe the nomination of Pamela Smith is recognized to be that Craig believes the police department's goal is to protect citizens from criminal activities in this role of protection it is supposed to be to remove anyone in violation of this premise the police are
209not supposed to be babysitters of criminals nor codling them their role is to arrest criminals somewhere along the way in DC we have gotten away from that and are putting duties on the police that should be executed by other agencies who focus on the following education Behavior Health family issues lack of proper food housing Etc in supporting Pamela Smith my advice to her is to arrest criminals and let other agencies deal with issues that are not actually under the mpd's purview the chief of police department the chief of any Police Department should never say we cannot arrest our way out of crime when the main duty of the police is to arrest when others say we cannot arrest our way out of crime it is just a play on words to discourage the police from
210doing their job any time a police officer says that they do not need to be an officer because the police are hired to arrest criminals the council members until you stop her hamstringing that the police department is going to be a problem getting new officers and chief Smith should not be blamed for that because it is something that has that she has inherited for the mayor to choose Pamela Smith formerly with the United States Park of police for 24 years is a sign that her tenure there has given her qualifications that would be in line with the MPD needs now I ended there but I want to add a couple of things listening to some of the council members I do not believe my ears the very same ones who are crying about conditions the
211condition and we are in excuse me the very same ones crying about the condition we are in now and that we need more police coverage are the exact same ones who brought us to where we are now led by council member Charles Allen with knee-jerk reactions after George Floyd's murder and a few yelling citizen posing as black lives matter I found myself repeating this catchphrase the chickens have come home to roost this Council when led by Allen acted as if police officers in DC murdered George Floyd which was extremely wrong now we are attempting to recircle the wagon which is not going to happen overnight the question was asked today what does success look like success looks like a council that supports the police department by writing laws that are enforceable stopping the the criminalization
212of crimes holding MPD officers liable for what they actually do wrong and not putting the burden on them because of what off officers did in another jurisdiction so there's my statement I say U crave says and I say please vote Yes on Pamela Smith that ends my statement thank you very much Miss seagar next we will turn to okua Ali and aacp can you hear me can you hear us yes we can hear you okay go ahead so good evening everyone greetings chairman pinto and members of the committee on Judiciary and Public Safety thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding the nomination of Pam Smith to the position of chief of the Metropolitan Police Department my name is akosua Ali I am the President of the nap Washington DC branch and I am award
213seven resident the NP supports the nomination and confirmation of Pam Smith as chief of the Metropolitan Police Department for over 114 years the nacp has championed the fight for racial Justice Humane treatment and equality as the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization since we were founded in 1909 today we continue to be a fierce advocate for criminal justice Public Safety and policing reform ensuring all lives particularly black lives have the opportunity to live in safe healthy communities free of gun violence and free of abusive policing tactics with failed accountability in particular the nacp DC branch has been on the record advocating for legislation and budget actions in support of Health Solutions for nonviolent mental health domestic violence and drug related offenses we are on the record for increasing Behavioral Health Care Social Work violence
214interrupts and Crisis Intervention support we are on the record advocating mpd's eeo department to be moved from under MPD into a separate independent Agency for oversight final determination and adjudication we are also on the record advocating for mpd's international Affairs Bureau to also be moved to a separate independent non- enforcement agency for the purpose of oversight final determination and adjudication ensuring that special positions charged with overseeing IB are unbiased and qualified to independently investigate and make determinations based on corruption and misconduct the public and MPD employees that serve the public deserve safe communities and safe work environments free of abusive tactics fix retaliation and Corruption without accountability to reform our justice system we must ensure that accountability and justice for the public and internal MPD employees reporting misconduct and Injustice that they have Safe and
215Sound Solutions to ensure that they are also safe and heard we must ensure the public and MPD employees reporting racial Injustice and misconduct are protected and lastly we must address the structural inequalities that allow people with lower incomes to be penalized in ways that wealthy people are not now I lift this up because acting Chief Pamela Smith has made historic strides towards achieving a more balanced Police Department supporting safer communities with a diverse and inclusive approach to Rehabilitation engagement and mental health I would say the Pam Smith resume qualifications are unquestionable but based on some of the comments today it needs to be re reiterated that she has over 25 years of law enforcement experience and she has served our community from a multiplicity of areas in the law enforcement space so again her resume
216is unquestionable but to speak to the work that she has done as a leader in this city she under her previous role as the chief Equity officer she championed and increased faith-based leaders presence within the Metropolitan Police Department she expanded mpd's chaplain cor corpse from one to six Faith leaders to support NPD members and in her role as acting Chief now she has demonstrated a commitment to work with atrisk youth before they are involved in crimes through Partnerships with rehabilitation services in addition in her leadership now she has realigned resources within the Youth and Family engagement Bureau to create the new school safety and Community engagement division supporting a sa safety strategies in and around our schools in addition in her leadership now she has initiated lgbtqia plus trainings to ensure that MPD officers and
217employees are better better equipped to deal with the sensitivities of that community in her leadership now she continues to build upon Chief kti's work and efforts to support mental physical emotional and spiritual well-being of MPD officers through destigmatizing mental health and increasing access to support resources for NPD officers overall and lastly Pam Smith has worked to create increased opportunities for the Recruitment and promotion of black women with NPD which is necessary to ensure that we holistically address the complexities of policing in our communities in closing policing is a hard job and the role of chief of police is a monumentous challenge but the nacp is committed to being a partner to support Chief Smith in this role we acknowledge the hard work and sacrifice of the Metropolitan Police Department and we want to particularly lift
218up the importance to ensure that we as Community organizations and partners provide wraparound support because a holistic approach is needed to ensure that we yield successful outcomes on behalf of the Washington DC and ACB Branch we strongly urge your confirmation of Pam Smith as the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department this history in the making as we advance the first black woman chief of the Metropolitan Police Department to be confirmed is an opportunity for us to advance what is very necessary at this time so again I thank you for the opportunity to testify and the nacp stands with her in our commitment to support her leadership towards that end thank you thank you very much s next we will turn to Debbie Steiner public witness and former ANC commissioner thank you for being with us
219commissioner please go ahead hi can you hear me yes we can okay good oh hey um Patrick uh okay first I've been prayerful over this whole situation and I'm not trying to be aggressive I'm assertive I'm very passionate I've always worked with uh MPD since 1996 Patrick is here to confirm that and I've always worked inside with the chief of police except for the last one kti who was not qualified as he had got demoted when he was underneath n and that's why we're going through what we're going through it has been placed on my heart to remind you and everyone else the situation that we have gone through with the Trump era and Hillary Rodman Clinton area era and how they moved her out to put him in and he was incompetent so with
220that being said the DC Council needs to do more of delving into people's uh who are coming before you for confirmation and their background now my I had I did submit my testimony and I just want to say this a part of my testimony because I didn't want to I had to say that because God placed that on my heart according to publish reports Pamela Smith's resume oh and this is in disapproval of uh Chief Smith according to miss Steiner yes I think you may be covering the speaker maybe with your hand because you got oh I'm sorry Hear Me Now Yep this is much better thank you okay I apologize according to published reports Pamela Smith resume states she was employed with the US Park Police from 1998 until her promotion to Chief to
221in n in 2021 until 2022 leaving involuntarily because of her leadership issues inter internal and internal disputes with Personnel including the poor state of the the Park Police Dispatch Center in 2022 Smith accepted a position within MPD as the first Equity officer and then she was promoted this past April to assistant chief of home land security to then be immediately tapped for the chief of police for MPD qualifications and experience are needed now more than ever holding job titles for a few months does not qualify you for a position of this type Pamela Smith was sworn in by the mayor uh she uh in July this year to assume the Helm of mpd's acting chief of police and from then to now is the only experience she has received as a bonified law enforcement officer
222as Smith admittedly stated when asked by reporter Martin Austin it takes longer than two months to understand staff and Staffing levels stat crime stats criminal justice paroling budget management within MPD DC agencies to be efficient with governance and policy police especially when you have no knowledge of the operation currently DC logs more than 208 homicides before October 1st of this year and Counting the large the highest in two 26 years yet almost every ward in DC has experienced at least one killing and almost as many children teenagers have been slang so far this year uh all in 2022 I will not take away any accolades given to Miss Smith about her life passion and intent about wanting to do a great job although if she was honestly interested in law enforcement in DC the opportunity
223to apply for the force and to be hide has been numerous during this time when Congress is trying to repeal home rule and constantly pointing at crime statistics of violence while residents are fleeing we need to hire a chief of police who has a stellar qualifications for this high-profile job profoundly and unacceptable is how mayor Bowser is constantly doing a disservice to Residents with her agency hires to include three directors who are Vol Miss Steiner I'm so sorry to interrupt you you're well over time if I can ask you to summarize and wrap up okay uh there will never be DC statehood under these conditions DC Council needs to make up its mind if they're going to go along to get along or are they supportive of the needs of the nation's capitals constituency who
224want and deserve better to lead thank you thank you very much next we will turn to Patrick Burke from Washington DC police foundation uh good afternoon chairman pinto and members of the committee my name is Patrick and I'm the executive director of the DC police foundation great to see so many friends with us today the mission of the foundation is to bring together business professional Civic nonprofits and individual citizens to promote Public Safety by providing financial and in-kind resources to the chief of police in the Metropolitan Police Department our goal is to make Washington DC a safer place to live work and visit for everyone before I start my testimony council member I'd like to address some disparaging comments made by our first witness regarding the US Park police I've personally had the pleasure of
225working with us Park police officers throughout my career and they're some of the finest and most committed officers I've ever worked with and I appreciate the dedication and sacrifices they make on a daily basis they've always been and will continue to be one of mpd's most trusted Partners I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you with respect to the nomination of Pamela Smith as the chief of police of the Metropolitan Police Department as a retired assistant chief for the MPD and the former US Marshall for the District of Columbia I've served the citizens of the district in a law enforcement capacity for over half my life I am honored to work with Chief Smith and our community in striving to achieve a safer City in which I live and have raised my four children Chief
226Smith has demonstrated a commitment to the vision for a safer City and her many years of service had prepared her well for this Herculean Endeavor she's worked in a variety of positions that have equipped her with a unique perspective to handle the many complexities of policing in our nation's capital our foundation Works hand inand with the chief and her team to keep our youth out of the criminal justice system and to support our officers who are frequently overworked our membership has been particularly concerned with the reduction in officers and the impact this has had on our department fewer officers impact response times time spent with victims time spent on inter interventions and case load numbers for detectives as the DC police foundation also works with MPD on Myriad youth initiatives to include the Police Athletic
227League this also affects the amount of time that officers can have in positive interactions with their young people both on and off duty beyond the attrition of officers through retirement I'm extremely concerned concerned about the resignation numbers we spend a significant amount of money to recruit and train our police officers we need to do a better job of keeping our best and brightest here at MPD I'm happy to see that Chief Smith shares our priorities and is working hard to support and retain Our Heroes many of our efforts at the foundation integrate MPD officers to help atrisk youth develop self-esteem self- advocacy and team building skills and as a result youth have been successful in navigating higher educ ation programs as well as advancing through mpd's Cadet program leading to mpd's Police Academy in addition
228to their partnership with the foundation MPD demonstrates demonstrates their commitment to the communities in which they serve by having a dedicated Youth and Family Service division to deal with at risk youth and Families in Need many of mpd's proactive Youth and Community programs have been in operation for 15 years or more we know that the investment that Chief Smith makes in dedic dedicating MPD Personnel to youth mentoring has greatly furthered the foundation's goal of making Washington DC a safer place in order for MPD to continue their long-standing youth and community outreach work the chief realizes is that at the heart of their work are the men and women in blue we need to ensure that they have adequate Staffing to continue these programs after a number of years that have seen less funding for police
229agencies not only here but Nationwide I'm pleased to see the administration countering this narrative President Biden has expressed admiration for those who who serve thanking them for quote putting their lives on the line every single day to keep our community safe he also called for enhanced tools training and funding for police Nationwide repeating his stance that the answer is not to defund the police I agree with that stance and support mayor Bowser's efforts to do the same Chief Smith has shown know throughout her career that she can balance the needs of the community with those of her officers and Elevate the quality of our Police Service given the proper tools and support we firmly believe that she is the right person for this job thank you council member for this opportunity to testify and I'm
230happy to answer any questions you may have thank you very much Mr Burke next and last on this panel Monica Ray Congress Heights partnership good afternoon chairman Pinto committee members Allan bonds gray Henderson and other members of the council I am Monica Ray I serve as president of the Congress Heights Community Association the Congress Heights partnership and I'm a proud Congress Heights resident and business owner each of these roles I am tasked with catalyzing Community Development maintaining clean and safe commercial corridors supporting small businesses to scale and advocating for this vulnerable Community these tasks are made all the more difficult as our community is plagued with crime when asked what my community needs from a police chief I reduced it to a few short qualities transparency accountability Community engagement cultural competency proactive advocacy compassion and
231empathy inclusivity conflict resolution Progressive policies data driven decisionmaking accessibility training education long-term Vision collaboration adaptability and proximity to community after opportuni to speak with the chief hear her speak and observe her interactions with other community stakeholders I see my evidence of my list already and I'm here to enthusiastically support Miss Pamela Smith for police chief her outstanding qualifications cultural competency extensive experience and unwavering commitment to community policing and youth engagement make make her an exemplary choice to lead our police force her sensive background in law enforcement Social Work lived experiences demonstrates her exceptional qualifications for this role her dedication to upholding the highest standards of policy Public Safety and justice has been discussed with stakeholders in my community and I believe that Chief Smith is the chief that we need at this time she inherits
232a flawed system a city plagued by violent crime and a city sharply divided by economic and access but she checks all 16 of my items beyond my list of qualifications her commitment to youth engagement and crime prevention is commendable she's demonstrated her plans to actively engage our City's youth through initiatives that will create a youth advisory Council to hear from the youth directly impacted by crime Empower them with opportunities and resources to steer their lives away from crime and to strengthen the relationships between MPD and our residents dedication to investing in our City's youth not only prevents crime but also paves the way for a brighter and safer Community for our community Chief Smith's philosophy on community policing aligns perfectly with our community's values she understands that Public Safety is a is a collective effort
233and that involves building strong relationships between law enforcement and the community her approach prioritizes communication transparency and collaboration fost in mutual respect and understanding between officers and the public moreover myth Smith is deeply committed to strengthening the relationship between the police department and our community she deserves this opportunity to bring our police force closer to the people it serves resulting in a safer and more harmonious community in conclusion I believe Pamela A Smith is an outstanding candidate for the position of chief of police her qualifications cultural competence commitment to youth engagement and dedication to community policing make her the ideal choice to lead our police force into the future I wholeheartedly support mayor Bowser in this nomination and believe that she will bring positive and transformative change to our community thank you for your attention
234to this matter I urge you to consider her candidacy with the utmost seriousness as her leadership would undoubtedly contribute to the benefit of our city and the well-being of our residents as well and if confirmed work with MP to adequately resource the strategies that treat crime as the Public Health crisis that it is thank you thank you very much s and thank you to all of our panelists um on this panel really appreciate your testimony the concerns that you highlighted um and support that you highlighted and I want to start with you miss ali um in furtherance of your enthusiasm for the effort that acting Chief Smith has already undertaken for equity and inclusion and what you'd like that to look like going forward as we think about accountability and building a police department that
235um is trusted in in all communities across the district absolutely so thank you for the question so again we acknowledge that policing is a very very hard job so this role of chief of police is it's it's a monumentous challenge and also acknowledging the sacrifice of the men and women on the police force it it's hard work so we know that we can never outp police our ways out of crime and violence that happens within our communities so we really have to take a holistic comprehensive community and law enforcement partnership approach that will require intentional collaboration and that requires all of us to play a part in that so it's up to us as a community up to community leaders faith-based leaders business owners across the city to support and work collaboratively to ensure that
236we have safer communities because policing alone is not a unilateral solution to address Public Safety thank you very much for that appreciate it and Mr Burke in all of your kind of conversations and and Leadership um at the foundation as we think about what we can do to ensure that the next chief of police is providing the type of leadership that really empowers our officers um and make sure that changes and concerns that people are seeing on the street every day and on the beat are really implemented through through policy within the department what types of things do you think would set her up for success in that realm I think she's going to have some conversations if she hasn't already with the council um about some legislative needs that that can help Empower her
237but I think the really the biggest challenge we have is the Staffing issue you know and I the one of the things I really feel bad uh for the chief is she's coming in not down seven officers or 70 officers but close to 700 officers which is kind of like you know fighting a fight with one hand tied behind your back so when you think of all the great things we talk about you know and I appreciate Ali and Monica and I agree with everybody on the panel um that that the police can't do everything and other agencies uh need to step up and do their part as well um when police officers are trying to you know spend time with the community have positive interactions but you know what there's 20 calls for service
238backed up on the radio and you've got a got to you know you're you're angry when you called in for a a burglary at your house and the police took half an hour to get there um so we're always uh you know answering to the radio and response times are off response times are slower so I think while the officers would like more time to engage with young people to engage with families um to handle their case loads as detectives and spend more time with people you're always answering to the clock and the radio and and when we talk about you know even looking back to the police Reform Act when we think about uh police officers making good decisions we're working our officers too hard when you go for check off and you're being
239held over for another six hours on a regular basis that disrupts your family if you're tired you're more likely to to make bad decisions under stress and duress so uh that that is our number one concern so I appreciate everything uh we're doing now to try to get us back up to speed but when you click off uh the hiring for one year it sets us back multiple years and you can't just turn on the switch and and have have us back to full Staffing right okay thank you so much and appreciate that additional context of many of the ways in which our staffing undermines operations it's not just about numbers but overtime and speed and all these things that are so important so thank you very much I'm now going to turn to my
240colleagues for any questions they may have for this panel council member gray Council M Parker thank you I want to start with Miss Steiner um and acknowledging the many years you've dedicated to the district and W five if you're there I'm not seeing you on the camera you question uh acting Chief Smith's tenure with the force is there a set amount of time uh that would make you comfortable or that you think should be the Benchmark of someone serving on the force before being nominated as Chief can you hear I'm sorry council member Parker can you hear me yes okay I don't know what's going on with my phone you know these new iPhone 15 don't get it okay just don't but anyway um in order to Be an Effective and St an effective leader
241you have to know a lot of the components in your operation in order to have them to blend in that will help you to determine what is needed and what's not needed when you're dealing with community policing unfortunately I mean she has the the police acting chief of police has a beautiful personality she's saying the same things that K said but when it comes down to actually having the knowledge the uh wherewithal I don't see it but it could be two three years we'll see that that's helpful that's helpful I I did want to come to others Miss seagar thank you for referencing the question earlier around uh bolstering mpd's performance that's something I look forward to a asking acting Chief Smith about I will turn that question back to this panel uh what are
242some recommendations of indicators that we should be looking for as a city as a council uh for improving MPD performance Miss Ali I'll come to you first well so so first I want to address the the the the allegations regarding her experience just to reiterate she has over 25 years of law enforcement experience and a decorated career numerous commendations and awards so when we look at her record her record speaks for itself and in addition to that she has the the wherewithal and the community engagement competencies to be able to connect with the average person right the the the brother or sister on the street like she can get down and connect with people and talk to people like a person right so even though has on the uniform it's important that we point out
243her ability to be able to Pivot and engage with the community some of the speci I only have 10 seconds left okay so to your question definitely the the diversity and inclusive pieces the lgbtq qia plus elements and really ensuring that officers are trained within those competency areas and then the community engagement pieces of it which are fundamentally the additional area she already has coupled with her experience she is beyond qualified for this position thank you that is my time thank you to all of you for testifying thank you thank you council member Parker council member fruman thank you very much uh chair Pinto um I I want to thank the panel for their testimony I'm I'm going to be curious to hear what these legislative initiatives that the chief may have on her mind
244I may ask that those questions uh later today if I have the opportunity to uh many folks who have deep connections and commitments to the city testifying in this round uh thank you for that and let's work together to make us all safe thank you thank you thank you very much Council fuman thank you to all of you on this panel really appreciate you being here and the really excellent ideas shared we are going to move on to our next panel of public Witnesses I believe this is our last panel but we have some folks who have weren't here earlier who've rejoined so we're going to try to add you on to this panel and we'll see see how this goes um Derek Davis retirees for accountability Robbie Woodland anc8 c06 Robert Pitman First District
245police citizens advisory Council Patrick O'Keefe public witness Paula Edwards ANC 4 a01 JP simowitz andc 3d7 Gregory pton DC police Union Leroy Swain public not all of those people are here so give you a moment to join the panel Fritz [Music] Mouser Wendall Quan and Stephanie Campbell if you are here and have not been called um please send send a message to our committee through the zoom there's a way you can type a message to the committee and let us know that you're here okay and again those last couple names are Fritz Mouser Wendell Quan and Stephanie Campbell all right Derek Davis I do not think is here Robbie Woodland and C8 c06 Robert Pitman First District police citizens advisory Council good afternoon chairman Pinto uh members of the Judiciary Committee to my fellow CAC
246members um also the other members of the council and to the Metropolitan Police Department and um everyone who's watching I'm Robert Pitman I'm here representing the first district police citizens advisory Council but first I I just I'm so proud of my CAC members um Robert brandom who testified earlier our newbie Nina Murphy Martin representing for dcac did a fantastic job and the Newbie before her Karen Gul representing 3D so I just wanted to point them out um my testimony is too long to read but there are some things that I did want to point out and so I'm going to do my best not to talk too fast as I'm told that I sometimes do and I talk a little bit about Pam Smith I met Pam Smith when she became the chief of police
247of the United States Park police and I after that I invited her to be uh a part of National Night Out in the first district at Lincoln Park which she did she engaged the hundreds of people that were there we had a wonderful time after that we would go on to uh re-engage when she became the chief Equity officer and you've heard from others in terms of what she's done in that role um so I'm just gonna jump to the point that she'll make an excellent Chief she is capable of thinking on her feet and you've heard all of the other things but there's some other things that we need to talk about if anyone is expecting anybody who gets nominated and becomes chief of police to solve all of our crime problems then we
248need to continue our discussions um it's going to take a whole Community as others have said to bring this together we're at War and the other agencies need to be online with their emergency response teams as I've said before working from 5:00 pm to 9900 am that's when things are happening when most people are asleep um in addition to that we we need to also ensure that um as the community Bears a responsibility to deter crime as well not just our police forces that are here our part one and our part two offenses those non-felony offenses um Community has to play their role in ensuring that we don't tolerate that behavior block byblock neighborhood by bl by neighborhood we also what what I'm going to want to see from this Chief and working with the
249administration and with the council is we're going to have to support our Rank and file uh and let the remaining sworn members know that we have their backs most police out there day and night doing what we want them to do for safety security and fair Justice and arrest um we have to ensure that our police stations get renovated and that we build new facilities that meet code and have building certificates elevators must operate and toilets must must flush we have to make sure that the facilities are comfortably air conditioned when needed and comfortably heated when needed um that prisoners that are housed in those facilities are also not in situations that are intolerable that you might find somewhere like bogot um the body I I want the council to go back and look at
250some things that you did in the past and we I know we move on but we got to go back take a look at the body warant camera footage legislation and the fact that you don't allow if you still don't allow police officers to look at that BWC when they've made an arrest you need that information and it's important I want you to go back and look at choke holes I understand we all understand the dangers of a choke hoold but I also need you to understand what it takes to make an arrest and I know Pat Berke can talk more about that officers get hurt I've got officers in Chinatown uh right now who are coming back from performance of Duty injuries because of making arrest we have to think about the number of
251officers that you actually need and in the Metropolitan Police Department I developed the 4200 number back in 198 uh 1997 but it's time to get a higher number the city is much larger we have more entertainment uh uh uh venue online there's so many things happening we really need to look at a number like 5,000 why because you have to back fi you have to train officers everybody says that they want training well how can I train how can we train 20 people or 200 people if there's nobody to replace them in the units so as my time runs out and I can't say all the things that I want to say let me end with the fact that you all saw what we did with Beat the Streets this year um we had some
252problems but 1 dcac was able to uh help fund it until we could get MPD to uh to to come in and save us and also for the police foundation to come in and save the program we touched more than 13,000 people and I want the council to consider a line I'm line item budget $40,000 which would give us 15 events so I'll stop there I thank thank you for the opportunity to speak and I'm available for any questions that you may have thank you Mr Pitman next we will turn to Patrick O'Keefe public witness hello good afternoon chairperson pinto and members of the committee my name is Patrick o'keef I am a resident of Ward 8 I live in historic Anacostia um I've been a district resident for more than 11 years uh thank
253you for the opportunity to speak during the round table this afternoon I'm providing this written and Ral testimony in support of the nomination of Pamela A Smith to the position of chief of police for the DC metropolitan Department in August acting Chief Smith took time out of her schedule to attend a community safety conversation to hosted in my backyard following a horrific triple homicide behind my home the previous week after chief Smith teamed um Chief Smith and her team came prepared to discuss pressing concerns from Neighbors including violent crime the lack of loitering laws and engagement between MPD in the community in addition to thanking acting Chief Smith for participating in the event I wanted to express my thanks to the continued engagement by 7d's Captain Michael Hamlin during this discussion at my home exasperated
254neighbors expressed their extreme frustration with the lack of enforcement of laws at the intersection of 16th in UST Street Southeast violations rang drug sales public Iration public intoxication to trespassing on private property among many other things occur daily on this block MPD council members and other government officials are aware of the deep seated challenges leading to constant criminal activity at this intersection and yet no progress has been made in addressing concerns from the community since hosting acting Chief Smith at my home just last month there have been two additional homicides within two blocks of my residents dozens of shootings and at least six homicides have occurred within three blocks of my home in the five and a half years that I've been on this corner we urgently need a comprehensive approach to addressing crime in
255the city and NPD must play a major part in developing this approach more attention needs to be paid to enforcing existing laws consistently and responsibly where we'll continue to see minor offenders turn into major criminals MPD is not solely responsible for addressing the challenges that I mentioned earlier in my testimony there really needs to be a coordinated approach among Council and multiple government agencies focus on addressing the needs of atrisk community members including those with behavioral health challenges residents suffering from substance abuse disorders and those experiencing homelessness these long-standing complex challenges will not be addressed overnight but residents cannot be expected to continue sitting in the crossfire while decision makers consider Creative Solutions they need to address the violence now through enforcement of existing laws while also collaborating on long-term Solutions I believe that acting
256Chief Smith will bring a Fresh Approach to community engagement in coordination among key stakeholders across the district that is needed at this time and I support her nomination for the position of chief of police um and in closing following the example of Miss Brenda Richardson who testified earlier I'd also like to extend an invitation to you chairperson pinto and committee members to join me uh and community members for coffee at my home so that you can witness directly what is going on in this intersection thank you for the opportunity to testify great thank you very much happy to set that up we will now hear from Paula Edwards anc4 a01 hello chair Pento and members of the committee I'm Paula Edwards native Washingtonian who grew up in Shepard Park and I'm ANC commissioner for amc4
257A1 thank you for allowing me to testify today and thanks also to Miss akima Benjamin who was so helpful in enabling me to register and receive the link M I do not have sufficient information to speak in support of or in opposition to the confirmation of acting Chief Smith although I believe that her experience in the federal government should portend well for cooperation between jurisdictional authorities her lack of leadership experience in dcmpd can be both a deficit and a benefit a deficit in requiring more time to become familiar with MPD protocols and personnel and a benefit in giving her the ability to come into the department without baggage and with fresh eyes through her nomination and acceptance of the nomination both she and the mayor have confidence that she can handle the job I urge
258the counsel to vet acting Chief Smith thoroughly and to spare no effort in deciding whether or not she is a good fit for this role don't confirm her because you like her backstory she is personable because she says the right things or checks the right boxes confirm her because you feel she has the leadership ability to be ex to be successful if she is confirmed I hope the council will step back and let her and her team do their jobs without trying to micromanage them through overly restrictive and punitive leg legislation DC must have one of the most difficult policing jobs in the world where the department can go from responding to local shoplifting to guarding world leaders in the same shift from sharing enforcement and other duties with a variety of federal agencies and
259two adjacent States the icing on the cake is that MPD has to work with both a locally elected and a federally appointed process utor to bring cases to trial finally frequent Congressional bullying adds a level of stress that no other police chief has to tolerate in confirming the nominee the council should accept her expertise respect it and not try to supersede her judgment the council's oversight role was essential to maintaining the Integrity of the dcmpd and it should be exercised assiduously but there is a difference between oversight and interference the tight rope that the council must walk is to work cooperative ly with MPD while still holding it accountable although I believe that all of our leaders love this city and want the best for its residents I see a lack of consistent leadership at
260all levels as a big contributor to our current crime situation to to paraphrase of previous witness we are title heavy and Leadership poor leadership is not sniping at other branches of government and public acting and talking tough repeating this is intable we are disgusted the violence must stop for the millionth time refusing to admit to mistakes not speaking to or meeting with other City federal state leaders telling only the parts of the truth that agree with our ideology or make us look good not sharing information transparently with other agencies in the community leadership is working cooperatively with the community and other agencies working with people you don't like to solve a problem subordinating political Ambitions and personal interests to the good of residents owning mistakes and not being afraid to share information transparently finally I
261urge my fellow residents to become part of the solution work with organization that help those in needs attend ANC MPD and other community meetings get to know your neighbors and the issues in your jurisdictions and give your input elect leaders not seat fillers don't vote for people because you like them they sound good they say what you want to hear or they are friends church members soror club members vote for leaders who will tell you the truth even if you don't don't want to hear it who listen rather than preach who are willing and able to do the arduous work the leadership requires and who will work with everyone to solve our problems with the escalating loss of lives and property to Crime we cannot afford Politics as Usual and since everybody's having a coffee
262date I offer you the same opportunity thank you great thank you very much commissioner Edwards um G to be overly caffeinated but that would be good that would be great uh okay commissioner JP simowitz fromc 3d7 please go ahead uh good afternoon my name is JP squits I'm a fifth generation resident of the District of Columbia I'm the advisory neighborhood commissioner for uh single member district 3d7 which encompasses the Foxhall area of the district I testify here today in my own capacity as an individual A&C commissioner and not on behalf of the entire commission thank you council member Pinto for providing me the opportunity to speak today and thank you and my council person uh council member fruman uh for your leadership on this issue I strongly support mayor Bowser's nomination of Pamela Smith to
263become the new chief of the Metropolitan Police Department and commend to the mayor for her decision since there are many people that have testified today I want to hire like just a few issues that lead to the inescapable conclusion that Miss Smith is the right person for this important job the District of Columbia is unique in American localities as it houses both regular citizens and the government of the District of Colombia therefore it's essential for any police chief to have extensive experience dealing with Federal bureaucracy since the Metropolitan Police Department has to work closely with our federal Partners in protecting the United States capital the White House federal Offices and foreign embassies as the former Chief of the United States Park police in the District of Columbia and as a senior instructor in the federal
264law enforcement training center Miss Smith has the experience in dealing with this bureaucracy that is essential to her new job another aspect of Miss Smith's background that makes her an excellent candidate for this role is that she's served at all levels of a police department from Sergeant to Lieutenant to Captain to Major to Deputy Chief and finally to Chief this background will allow her to relate to all of the officers under her command finally as mpd's Chief Equity officer Miss Smith knows firsthand how our policing must balance the civil rights of suspects with the needs of our victims and how important it is to treat everyone who comes in contact with police officers with respect and dignity thank you for allowing me to testify today thank you very much commissioner simet Gregory pton DC police
265Union I don't see Mr pton I also want to remind everybody that this is our last panel of public Witnesses so if you missed your panel earlier and you still want to testify make sure to let our team know um because this is going to be our last panel today um Leroy Swain public witness thank you and thank you uh councilman Pendleton pinto and members of the city council before I read my testimony I would like to also just thank you councilman Pinto for your recent legislation that you enacted and I truly hope that it is passed by the council and I have to admit that I have watched this city and I think over the last three to four years we have moved too too much from the as we used to say from
266the Senate to the left to the point where laws and responsib ability no longer matter uh and I was deeply troubled by that I was deeply troubled by when we rushed to remove SEC uh resource officers from the public schools I mean all the action that we recently taken I believe has enabled many of the criminal element in our city to believe that they were Untouchable this attitude needs to change and I hope uh with your recent legislation and the nominee of Pamela A Smith uh we will see a change in Direction uh when it comes to criminal justice in this city my presentation as a lifelong resident of Washington DC and the brother-in-law of the late chief of police Maurice Turner I extremely proud to come before you today and supported the confirmation of
267Pamela A Smith to become the next chief of police today Washington DC is facing unpr precedented challenges concerning Public Safety a serious increase in crime I.E murder carjacking robbery has forced a serious introspection by all citizens to answer the question of what can be done my response to that question is to immediately confirm Pamela A Smith as chief of police since her appointment in July acting Chief Smith has treated her responsibility more than just another job in the police department I have observed Chief Smith's personal characteristics of Integrity fairness honesty and ability to be Stern when necessary furthermore as a layers on to the public for the police department she Smith has been accessible and open-minded she has been on hand at public meetings throughout every quadrant of the city and has made citizens feel
268comfortable approaching the police chief with any issue or concerns over the last four months that acting Chief has been Smith has been on the job she has emphasized the importance of promoting diversity in the workplace to include culture diversity and diversity and thought processes which has allowed for Creative which will allow for creativity and innovating Innovation and policing additionally Chief Smith has embraced social justice and policing reforms at a meeting greet that I held this summer my neighbors heard heard her speak on how she would develop policies and training practices focus on deescalation and the application of force only when necessary afterwards everyone in my backyard stood up and praised her in closing I'm told fly convinced that acting Chief Pamela A Smith possesses the ability to establish trust and confidence create and sustain an
269ethical police culture enforce the laws fairly and impartially apply crtical critical thinking to problem solving exercise good judgment in decision making and was strategically develop effective Community relationships that will enable all citizen to feel safe again I'm asking the members of the District of Columbia City Council to confirm Pam A Smith thank you appointment as chief of police and with that I'm going to end and again uh thank thank you so much you for the time thank you Mr and for your assistance to keeping in touch with me so that I could speak this afternoon thank you so much our pleasure thank you very much for being here next we are going to turn to Derek Davis combat veterans alumni group and retirees for accountability hear me can you hear me yes we can okay
270um I was having some connection problems I'm trying to get off this okay there we go can you hear me oh Lord hello hello hello hi we can still we can hear you can you hear us okay okay great Mr Davis go ahead good afternoon everyone good afternoon everyone um dear council member Brook prto chair Judiciary and Public Safety Committee and members of the committee my name is Derek Davis Army Captain retired a combat vet veteran and a graduat of anacosta senior high school I also serve as chair of the PSA 70678 over 20 something years I am an educator and entrepreneur I presently serve as the spokesperson for the retirees for accountability a nonpartisan group of retirees comprised of former members of MPD military disabled veterans clergy Community activists both Federal and local government
271retirees in 20188 retires for accountability convened at the ahop on Alabama Avenue Southeast to discuss matters of concerns about public safety and policing during that meeting which included then Chief and two assistant Chiefs it was decided that we would continue to provide our observations and critique speaks regarding Public Safety and policing in the district of Colombia recently members of our group met with acting Chief Pam A Smith we had a very productive conversation with her and look forward to continuing our relationship with her afterwards it was the consistence of our members that we would support the confirmation of acting Chief Pamela A Smith to become the next Washington DC chief of the Metropolitan Police in closing we would like to challenge the council and the mayor to provide our next chief with the full support
272supportive efforts and policing and Community engagement furthermore we suggest that once Mr Davis we're losing your internet connection okay I'm not sure if you can hear us I think we've lost your connection but thank you so much for being here um and please make sure to submit any testimony you have in writing to our committee for our for our records next we're going to turn to Robbie Woodland ANC commissioner from 8 c06 thank you and thank you all for having me here today councilman um councilwoman pinto and all the others that sit with her today I am thrilled to provide this testimony regarding our new police chief and the importance of her commitment to being tough on crime as a concerned Citizen and member of our community I believe that effective law enforcement is the
273backbone of a safe and secure Society with our new police chief at the helm I'm genuinely excited about the direction in which our Police Department is headed in conclusion I have full confidence that under her guidance our community will become an even safer and more vibrant place to live and work I was present Chief Smith at the shooting at 2500 artero Road Northwest where not one but three brothers were gunned down and died one after the other and I appreciate not only your professionalism and concern on the scene but also your care in handling the body of those who passed away I would also like to say that for those who feel that she needed to do a whole lot more you do have to understand that what you're asking her to do is a
274very unrealistic expectation in the short amount of time that she's been acting police chief this has been happening in our city for over 30 years and it's not going to be it's not going to be corrected overnight what you should be upset about is that you do have council members that you have elected year after year after year to have the power to put the legislation in place that we need and I thank you so much Miss Pinto that you have jumped out there and went ahead and started I'm sorry commissioner Woodland we seem to have lost connection with legislation and agre hello can you hear hear me hi um yes we can hear you now as as odd as it's going to sound I we stopped hearing you as you started uh Thanking us
275for the legislation moving forward okay yes Miss Pento thank you again for the legislation the emergency legislation that you did create because that's the beginning and and we need you all to do more though we need these laws to be implemented and in place for us to be be be safe and stable I watched those three brothers three Brothers two parents lost all three of their children one after another in the same night and we were there rendering Aid and this police chief she didn't know who I was when I was out there trying to help but I do appreciate the way she moved and how she handled the situation so please please put her in as chief of police for Washington DC thank you very much commissioner Woodland we have now been rejoined by
276Gregory pton uh head of the DC police Union please go ahead Mr pton when you're ready uh thank you chairperson uh good afternoon members of the committee thank you for this opportunity to testify as the chairman of the DC police Union I speak on behalf of approximately 3,000 sworn police officers detectives and sergeants who sered this community as members of the Metropol Police Department when Chief kti announced his retirement from the MPD several months ago our membership immediately gravitated to then assistant chief Pamela Smith as the ideal replacement while Chief Smith did not not begin her career with the Metropol Police Department she has an illustrious tenure as a law enforcement officer with the United States Park police while serving with the Park police chief Smith served in major city field offices across the United
277States including San Francisco New York and Washington DC Rising through the ranks to become chief of police of the United States Park police in 2021 this robust resume gives chief chief Smith the depth and experience needed to lead an organization like the MPD over her Decades of experience Chief Smith has developed an effective style of leadership that shows a genuine ability to listen to and hear the rank and file members Chief Smith has already shown that she's able to find meaningful discourse in the Labor Management relationship she also possesses the ability to engage the P public in a productive Manner and build relationships within the community to reduce crime and developed trust while ensuring the safety and well-being of our members the union believes the chief Smith possesses the leadership skills to successfully manage the
278many difficult issues facing the MPD and the city in a way that will be bring bring safety and prosperity to all communi ities in the district one of the most important aspects of the Labor Management relationship is to enable the agency to hire and retain the best possible employees while combating attrition a well-trained Workforce is the key to providing the best customer service while also policing communities responsible even though there are many voices in the current debate on policing in society I believe there's one thing most would agree on we need to focus on improving our Police Department we can only do that with the best candidates and the best employees the union is highly optimistic that our relation ship with Chief Smith will result in positive outcomes for the department and our city particularly
279in our most vulnerable neighborhoods the DC police unit expresses support for chief panel Smith to assume the position of chief of and we support her confirmation without reservation again I thank you for the opportunity to testify I'm happy to provide additional information of the committee's request thank you thank you very much Mr pton um we've also been rejoined by Mr Davis Mr Davis I think you had about 30 seconds to a minute left in your testimony so if you'd like to to finish up please go ahead Mr Davis you're still on mute Mr Davis you're still on mute it should be at the bottom left of the screen I can see your mouth moving but we can hear you okay unfortunately I don't know if it's a technical issue but we're unable to hear you
280so if you can submit your testimony to the committee we'll make sure to review it in Fall okay thank you very much okay we're now moving moving on to Fritz Mouser from DC open government Coalition good afternoon thank you very much chairman Pinto chairperson pinto and the members of the committee thanks for the opportunity to testify regarding the nomination of Pamela Smith to be the next police chief I'm a member of the co the board of directors of the Coalition DC open government coalition advocates for public access to government information and records and that's based on an idea very basic that an informed public will take part in useful ways in government and that that connection of good government information to Citizen involvement needs constant advocacy and refreshment you've heard a great deal about strategies
281of combating crime today let us provide a a rather different perspective we want to talk to you about the unfortunate MPD culture and concerted efforts under the past three Chiefs to avoid accountability to the district residents for officers mistakes U bad acts of individual officers ineffective policies and the like secrecy and lack of accountability contribute to what many have spoken about Community distrust of the department we hope that you'll talk later today with the interim Chief about specific steps she'll take to ensure that MPD follows the DC transparency laws related Court decisions and office of open government advice about what trans transparency means in the police context ask how she'll tear down the culture of secrecy that's grown up in MPD and we hope you will demand a commitment that under her leadership the department
282will in fact become more transparent the advocacy for transparency in the policing goes back many years but you may have heard of the conflict around the beginning of body warn camera usage um six or seven years ago the council has enacted legislation about the release of video and the department doesn't carry it out it redacts it fuzzes out great many parts of videos that wasn't what you intended the council recently overcame the resistance in the permanent legislation on police reform which required the disclosure of names of officers involved in serious misconduct use of force and release of recordings of officers it's in your report and the Reform Act also required making disciplinary records accessible so that researchers and the with those with the ability to use voluminous records uh could see that misconduct is attended
283to but MPD frustrated that with broad-based unlawfully not lawfully supported views of the law of privacy and um that frustrates requesters although the present rationale is that they lack the budget to do it but it was their mistake in the first place to over exempt records on privacy grounds and the idea that they now don't have the resources to do what they should have been doing all along is quite Troublesome we hope that the funding shortfall is corrected in this coming year in these privacy protective cultural stances of the department the agency Resort to Skyhigh cost estimates with regard to releasing records video redaction at thousands of dollars an hour most recent lawsuit bringing this to light said that the agency ask for $860,000 for one request from a nonprofit very skillful in regard to
284analyzing police data so the Privacy legal rationals the high cost cost estimates these are simply disappointing exhibits of a culture of secrecy even where the court of appeals recently said there's a growing consensus of the circuit courts that there is a First Amendment right to record police and negates officers privacy expectations and the the most dramatic lawsuit in a long time which is still pending tells the story with sworn information from a police department fo you officer that high officials told her to slow walk and interfere with requests for information from critics Mr Mouser uh you're a bit over time if I could ask you to summarize and wrap up finish with the following sentences thank you so much uh the culture of secrecy is pervasive it's been there for many years we ask you
285to look most closely [Music] with the nominee at what she can do the culture changes from the top and we hope with your influence she can Embrace a new era of real transparency thanks so much thank you very much Mr Mouser we will now turn to Wendel Quan destination Congress Heights Wendell I can see you on the screen but the video and sound is off all right we are going to turn to our next and last witness um wandel if you come back you're you're free to go at the end um Stephanie Campbell Congress Heights Community training and Development Corporation hello all good afternoon I'm Stephanie Campbell I am the Chief Operating Officer for the Congress Heights Community training and Development Corporation I come to you today to provide my testimony and support of Pamela
286Smith who has dedicated over 25 years of her life to serving the community Through law enforcement and Leadership Chief Smith in just a short period of time quickly demonstrated a deep commitment to upholding the law m maintaining Public Safety and serving our community with Integrity she is already going above and beyond to make sure our communities are safe as she is intentional about combating youth crime in the area and putting officers back on the street further Chief Smith has been committed to the community outreach and engagement she has initiated and participated in numerous programs here in ker sites she continues to show up to community meetings over here at our new facility at Sycamore Oak she continues to be a part she makes sure that officers are v v Vigilant there and that she continues
287to show up these efforts have played a significant role in strengthening trust and cooperation between our police force and the citizens that they protect and serve in conclusion I recommend and wholeheartedly support Pamela Smith for chief of police for Metropolitan Police Department to I'm going to end here with a quote from her one of her last interviews she said I will be visible as a chief and conduct safety walks and folks will see me showing up in places and spaces not because other Chiefs have not but because I live here and it is important to me that members in my community feel safe and I agree with that I support that and as we said and many people who testify have said it takes a village to raise a child and it's going to take
288a village to compat the crime in our areas spec specifically w 8 and the District of Colombia and so it is all of our jobs to support Chief Smith and I strongly recommend that the council does confirm her today again I'm Stephanie Campbell coo for the Congress Heights Community training and Development Corporation thank you thank you very much M Campbell um Mr Davis I think I saw you here if you are reconnected you can have about 30 seconds to um summarize and conclude your testimony again thank you uh council member for being so respectful and and and and uh reconnecting me I I would just like to say on behalf of the retire from accountability again we are in support of uh acting Chief um Smith and hopefully that she will be confirmed by the
289council and the mayor thank you so much great thank you so much and sorry about those difficulties but glad you're able yeah to be here testimony thank you fantastic thanks for for having your support on the record um thank you so much to all on this panel I think there was a lot of really important testimony here um we heard from Mr Pitman and commissioner simowitz and some others about some of the kind of conditions that our officers are operating in and Mr pton if you're still here um would appreciate your insights on two things if you could turn your video on so I know you're still here that would be great Mr pton okay we'll come back to you if you come back um so commissioner Woodland I appreciate your comments about the support
290that MPD needs in the community and curious from your perspective as a commissioner um what you're hearing from residents about the ways that our community can partner with and and support the work of MPD well I'm I'm not I'm not really hearing too much too much of that what what I'm hearing more of is about the lack of stronger laws right because we know that we can't we can't um ask anyone to change their mentalities but we know that unfortunately mentalities can be forced if we have um be forced to be changed if we have stronger laws and that what what we need we're operating underneath laws that are not fit for our current way of life they haven't been adjusted or changed really since 1901 and and that should take president it need to
291happen as soon as possible okay we would like to see more police present but unfortunately we don't have that we would like to see um more done about where where the residents do do report that these issues lie Congress partk is the huge problem over here in commissioner I'm sorry to cut you off I'm going to have to move on to another question but I appreciate that um okay thank you very much so Mr pton I'm not sure if you heard what I was saying earlier but we heard from some folks on this panel about the kind of conditions that officers are experiencing right now and curious from your perspective um two things one how the department can support the union and if there are ways um that you're planning to work more closely with
292leadership on those issues and second uh Mr Pitman was talking about the difficulty of making an arrest and kind of incidence of uh making an arrest and if you can highlight that um would be helpful for the committee sure thank you for the question and and I'll try to answer them both as briefly as possible the the conditions for police officers out here um the main problems that we're seeing is that right now we're short about 500 police officers from where we were just three years ago and I don't even think that the numbers where we were three years ago are adequate so as you stated in your intro I think we're at 3,300 police officers which is a significant loss and and the way that the department is making up for The Gap uh
293is through 1.1 million hours of of overtime every year and that most of that overtime is mandatory overtime and and it it just coincidentally translates to about 500 uh full-time equival and and that's really what we're struggling with is that officers here are working um you know 60 70 80 hours a week in order to keep up with the demand the 911 calls the reports that need to be taken uh the scenes that need to be responded to the accidents that need where need reporting um and and it's uh it burns people out and I think especially younger Generations who come in here uh and they find out that they really don't have any work life balance uh they just immediately resign and I'm sure you've seen the Staffing reports which you know we're still
294losing 25 30 people a month and half of those are are resignations uh so really the main problem that we have I mean I could give you a whole laundry list of problems but they all come back to one issue is that we don't have enough police officers uh and what I would say about fixing that problem and working with leadership and working with the council is that I think we've made our position clear which is that there are aspects of the the comprehensive policing and Justice Reform Act that make this uh just an absolutely impossible job to do I think we've highlighted those uh for most of the council members throughout the this dispute um and we would like to see some open-minded addressing of those issues uh as far as the the difficulty
295in in making arrests uh this is true I I think that um what happens on on the street is that uh there's many people that when they become under scrutiny by a police officer think that challenging the police officer both verbally and physically is the best way for them to get out of that situation uh and so what we you see is sort of an increase in the number of incidents between off officers and subjects as as those incidents increase because crime is growing so um you know obviously I'll sum up here I know we don't have a lot of time but the the conditions on the street the conditions at to work as a metropolitan police officer are so onor and so difficult right now that it's impossible to hire or retain employees and
296I think something needs to happen very drastically in the very short term in order for us to try to turn the ship around but I thank you for the question thank you very much Mr pton I'm going to turn to my colleagues for any questions they have for this panel council member Henderson council member gray council member Parker thank you all for your testimony um and especially Mr Swain it's great to see you um and I really appreciate you underscoring the importance of school safety uh just to note that there is work underway to advance legislation I introduced earlier this year uh to implement school safety directors in our schools there's much more that we need to do uh but I appreciate you lifting that up as a concern um I don't have many questions
297I did just want to ask Mr pton um what involvement if any uh did the police Union have in the nomination of acting Chief Smith or the election rather um I the union I don't think had had much to say about that at all we met with uh the mayor's office um you know multiple times about sort of uh you know what we're looking for in in someone to fill that position um but I don't I don't think that the union carried much weight on the specific nomination of any specific person did the Union or you provide a list of names and I'm not going going to ask whether or not acting Chief Smith was on that list but just curious about process um I mean the discussions we had with the mayor's office were
298more General about kind of what type of people we're looking for and and what we needed to see from a leadership perspective to solve some of the problems the MPD is facing but I don't recall at any time having a list of names okay thank you and thank you to everyone on this [Music] panel council member kman uh thank you very much um I don't have any questions for this panel thank you very much for your testimony and and looking forward to hearing from acting Chief Smith thank you council member uh that concludes public Witnesses uh we are going to take a very brief recess and then turn to the chief e all right well I want to thank all of our public Witnesses again for sharing your perspectives sharing your uh concerns ideas and
299being here today it's a very important part of this process to hear from the public and keep moving forward in a manner that includes many many voices across the district and so I really appreciate all of those of you who came in person today those of you who testified virtually um and look forward to our continued partnership to improve Public Safety across the district we are um going to turn to our nominee um who I will now call up to the table acting Chief Pamela Smith welcome um and as you may may know it is the tradition of committee to swear in all government Witnesses who appear before it so I will ask that you raise your right hand so I can swear you in do you swear or affirm under penalty of law that
300the testimony you are about to provide before the Council of the District of Columbia and this committee is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank you very much I would now like to invite our nominee acting Chief Pamela Smith to make any opening statement that you may have is it on okay great okay good afternoon chair Pinto members and staff of the committee other council members and everyone in our great City watching on today I am Pamela A Smith acting chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department and I am truly humbled and honored to be here today to testify before you as mayor Muriel Bowser's nominee to be the next chief of police of the Metropolitan Police Department I want to extend my appreciation to Mayor Bowser for her ongoing
301support I approach this assignment with commitment and a strong sense of responsibility for leading the men and women of our great Police Department I would like to thank the members of the council all of whom made time to meet with me in August I am confident that we will be able to work together to support Public Safety in the District of Columbia although we may not always immediately agree on the path we share the same goal of a city for a safe City for all before I begin talking about the district and MPD please allow me to start our conversation by sharing more about my journey that has led me to this point of my career I am a native of Pine Bluff Arkansas where I spent my formative years as a young person my
302experiences gave me an unwavering drive to push through and Excel as a 9-year-old although I had no vision beyond the city limits of Pine Bluff I noted in my diary that I wanted to be a police chief I'm not sure I understood the magnitude of that Journey that journal entry at such a young age but I have no doubt it planted a seed giving me hope in the promise of Dreams coming true and ultimately believing that all things are possible I grew up in an environment where my father was addicted to drugs and my mother gave birth to her first child as a 16-year-old married married teenager by the time she was 21 she was divorced and left to raise three young children by herself she was challenged with many issues that she experienced from
303her childhood which made it difficult for her at times to create a household filled with love or compassion as a child I didn't quite understand how to protect myself or my siblings from some of the physical abuse but as a teenager I found solace in attending church I invited my siblings to attend with me and it was the one place we look forward to going to weekly to find a place of Refuge it was where I had the opportunity to be of service to others and to not remain focused on the circumstances in my household maybe that's why law enforcement was so appealing to me as I carry that same protective spirit with me today as your acting chief of police I realized later that Pine Bluff at that time did not have a system
304to assist single mothers so my mother did not have many options of support due to her addiction the Arkansas Department of Human Services eventually removed us from her care and placed us into foster home into a foster home despite the fact that my mother was dealing with her own challenges I would have preferred being home rather than a foster care system that was not focused on the reunification of our family nevertheless one of my greatest moments of elation in my young life was having a loving family who saw something special in me and gave me a second chance at life another chance to find Hope in what seemed to me was a hopeless situation a chance to prove to myself that I could overcome the adversities of life and fulfill those dreams that resonated in
305my mind I will forever be thankful for the Thomas family who took me in and adopted me during my last years of high school and helped to provide a sense of normaly and love in a home I craved for so long that instilled in me a Pay It Forward gratitude that I apply in all that I do today why because they took a chance on me one of the highlights of my high school career was joining the track team I was coached by the late great Andrew Butler at Pine Bluff High School coach Butler helped shape me into the Strategic thinker that I have been most of my adult life he reassured me that despite what I was going through running would help me win in life I didn't receive a trophy if I didn't
306win the race but I was in en courage to train more study harder and to look within if I was trying to win he would always tell me not to let others get inside my head in order to accomplish my goals but to always look Within Myself I adopted his coaching style through my journey in the in college at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff where I was a member and still am a member of zifi beta sority Incorporated and I was also a member of the track and field and served as a three time allamerican in track and field I have used these same techniques When approaching tasks that are very personal to me as I look back on those days I gained many life lessons how to find the positive and negative
307situations how to face my fears how to push through adversity and find a way to maintain emotional peace and some sense of normaly in life despite the things that I could not control I'm also grateful that as a adult I became more accepting of my birth parents As I Grew in my Ministry the Bible scripture to honor your parents convinced me to do just that I'm grateful I was allowed many years to spend time with my mom and dad to reconcile our relationship before they passed away although they are no longer here today I am confident they would be very proud of all of their children and how we embraced our circumstances to become productive people in today's society these experiences have shaped and molded me into the woman that you see in front of
308you today so much of what happened in my life is what's happening in many homes across the country today as I have had the opportunity to visit with many young people here in the District of Columbia over the last two months I have seen that some of them are living stories similar to mine I empathize with them and I want to help them as others help me as a young person everyone deserves a chance and I want to be able to bring that compassion and spirit to my work as the ch chief of police before committing myself to the profession of law enforcement I spent time as a National Park Service seasonal Ranger a social worker who passionately focused on K keeping kids out of the foster care system a New York City probation officer
309and a Federal Bureau of Prisons correction officer before joining the ranks of the United States Park police in 1998 through service and law enforcement I believe I found my passion due to the strong desire to serve and help others in the guide to help guide others in the right direction while working for the US Park police I had the opportunity to serve in four jurisdictions the District of Columbia New York Atlanta and San Francisco I work with local crime fighting strategies in each of those jurisdictions I Rose through the ranks within the US Park police until I retired in 2022 as the first African-American woman to serve as chief of police in the agency's then 230e history I'm proud and appreciative to have served 25 years in law enforcement with a decorated career I achieved
310numerous commendations and award and I am humbled and honored to have the opportunity to continue this path forward if confirmed to lead MPD as the next chief of police I joined MPD in 2022 as the first Chief Equity officer and was able to focus on learning and examining mpd's culture building relationships across the department and driving meaningful change ensuring that diversity equity and inclusion remained a priority while I passionately and thoroughly enjoyed the dni Dei work I was proud to answer the call and promotion to the assistant chief of police and our Homeland Security Bureau where I led the operational and administrative functions of the Special Operations Division joint strategic and tacnical Analysis Command Center and the Office of Intelligence this was a great opportunity for me to reconnect with so many of the local
311state and federal Partners I had previously collaborated with while at us Park police and an even more meaningful way to continue to strengthen those professional relationships my past experience has led me to this great honor of being nominated to serve the District of Columbia as your next chief of police it was a privilege to join MPD in 2022 to work with its dedicated team of sworn officers and civilian Professionals in one once again serving this great City I come to this position ready to work with members of the community and our partners in nonprofits businesses and government to help create a safer City for all that fulfills the promise and values of equity and inclusion and my fundamental perspective is that in this position my role is not to jettison the ongoing good work in
312the department the government and our neighborhoods but to build upon it and to continue the progress or to bring New Perspective that can help us to move to the next level together over the past two months I have worked with The Talented team at MPD to identify top priorities launch new initiatives and develop a strategic plan that is now available on our website at mdc.com MPD mpdc.dc.gov I am pleased to highlight some of these priorities and initiatives today and council members I I provide provideed each one of you with a copy I recognize that I have begun my tenure as DC acting Chief during some of our most critical Public Safety challenging times but that also means that there is an opportunity to have a significant impact in our community and the department the most
313pressing concern that I've heard from community members is the increase in robberies and carjackings and the fear that this creates homicides and shootings are also up this year leading to a 36% increase in DC code index violent crimes so far this year much of this was driven by a sharp increase this summer while we have a lot of work to do to overcome the violence we have seen in our community this year I believe the initiatives that I will brief you on today are helping to interrupt this cycle and make our city safer looking at the past 30 days compared to the prior 30 days homicides are down 37% carjackings are down 27% and robberies are down 32 23% excuse me in 2023 we have seen too many groups of Youth and Young adults committing
314strings of carjackings and robbery from my first day as the acting chief of police I have been working with the MPD team and our partners to develop and deploy tactics that will help us to interrupt these patterns and make our streets safer for everyone in Washington DC the week after my nomination I launched the violent crime suppression initiative origin Ally Focus just on just robberies and carjackings the initiative focuses additional resources in the areas and at times when our robberies carjackings and shootings occur to ensure a high level of Citywide coordination each operation is lad by a designated Incident Commander and the joint Operations Command Center is activated this facilitates Communications across police districts ensuring that officers operating in one District have current information about emerging crime patterns in other districts as with many MPD
315initiatives our Public Safety partners are also involved and support this effort during the operational period MPD coordinates with federal law enforcement agencies local University Police Department metr Transit Police and agencies from surrounding jurisdictions this partnership is critical to mpd's ability to impact violent crime and increased safety for our communities in 2023 almost two thirds of all arrests for carjackings have been youth under 18 years of age three4 of the carjackings have been and are committed while armed with a gun increasing the risk to the community substantially while the overwhelming majority of Youth in the district have no involvement with with crime when some children as young as 12 are engaging in carjackings and other dangerous crimes victimizing individuals and communities while increasing their own risk for later Criminal involvement or victimization it is clear that
316the current strategies are not an effective deterrent MPD has continued to arrest juveniles for crimes when appropriate and the council and prosecutors have taken recent steps to address this concerning Trend in July the council enacted legislation to ensure that youth engaged in the most serious crimes may be detained pending trial where they can receive appropriate supportive and rehabilitative services a month ago the US attorney for the dist of Columbia reinforced that when a 16 or 17 year-old is charged in a spree or pattern of armed robberies prosecutors should strongly encourage Prosecuting that juvenile as an adult so far in 2023 the usao has charged nine individuals as adults nine juveniles excuse me as adults for armed robberies including armed carjackings while these steps may be necessary our pre preference is to work with youth to
317deter this kind of at risk behavior as I highlighted earlier my commitment to working with at youth risk at risk youth comes in part from my childhood and also from my early professional career when I served as a social worker in New York I know that we need to support our adris youth and their families both before they get involved in delinquent or criminal Behavior as well as after any involvement in the justice system in a new step to help reach some of the youth before they are involved in crime earlier this month we partnered with the Department of rehabilitative Youth and rehabilitative services to address youth who are violating DC's juvenile curfew laws dyrs is operating a curfew Center so that when police pick up a youth violating curfew who cannot be immediately turned
318over to their parent or Guardian the youth and their families can be assessed for services and support this is critical when we are seeing groups of Youth staying out late in specific areas where we have also seen patterns of robberies and C jackings to be clear curfew violators are not arrested and do not have an arrest record our goal is to get youth off the street to reduce their risk of becoming a victim or getting involved in violent crime this month MPD has picked up 28th youth violating curfew of which half have been taken to dyrs I am committed to working with families and neighborhoods and community and government Partners to engage with youth to keep them safe and deter them from becoming involved with crime to support this Focus I have realigned our resources
319within the Youth and Family engagement Bureau to create the new school safety and Community engagement division the new division supports a safety strategy in and around our schools as well as community events and Outreach init initiatives designed for both Youth and adults the division will work to assist District families through meaningful engagement facilitating connections to essential services and accessible resources and extending community outreach efforts we are also bringing offersa friendly a positive symbol of MPD for generations of washingtonians back to our schools and our neighborhoods of course having a community engagement division does not change the fact that our Patrol officers are engaging with the community every day and every neighborhood we know that we must be intentional in our efforts to build relationships and Trust residents want to see not just see officers not
320just at events but they also want to see our officers in the street that is why I have directed our Patrol districts to conduct at least one scheduled Community walk each week providing an opportunity for patrol leaders to hear directly from a variety of community members and to see neighborhood streets through their eyes agency partners are also frequently joining our walks so they can follow up on issues needing attention such as lighting trees and trash this Focus does not stop with Community walk Patrol District leaders are working to spend more time in the neighborhoods with the community not only does this build relationship but it also reinforces to our officers the behavior and policing we want to see about a quarter of our sworn officers have have been on the department for less than six
321years their perspective and experience has been shaped by coid and large demonstration by online meetings in January 6 on the positive side they have been they have seen firsthand why MPD must always be prepared to support the city through major changes and emergencies however we must also ensure these officers see and understand the foundation in law enforcement such as good community policing to help address communities facing more entrenched issues relating to narcotics and disorder we have launched the multi-agency police and Community together or impact impact is a three-phase effort where first MPD conducts enforcement initi initiatives and Partnerships with other law enforcement and criminal justice agencies the second phase that is engagement which exemplifies the whole of government approach by bringing resources and services directly to the community this second phase is critical to the
322sustainability of the effort lastly is a celebration through which the community can enjoy their neighborhood with their neighbors and public servants these efforts have taken place around the city including Shaw Minnesota Avenue and Gallery Place Chinatown i al also want to announce that just this morning we have begun the installation of 22 new CCTV cameras they will be installed over the the next few weeks in all police districts ward council members either have been or will be notified of Final locations by their District commanders 28 additional cameras will be coming later this fall community members have raised concerns about safer streets from speeding and reckless driving to help address this MPD is conducting traffic safety compliance checkpoints throughout the city at least twice a month the high visibility checkpoints focus on promoting safe driving providing
323education traffic violation enforcement along with taking suspected impaired drivers and unsafe drivers off the road during these checkpoints MPD has stopped 800 ve Vehicles issued nearly 600 traffic tickets and 400 warning tickets we've made 35 arrests and given away 23 child car seats while these are concerns raised in many Community meetings in the past two months it is important to recognize that there is there is great diversity in our communities diversity in demographics national origin sexual orientation ability and others can contribute to A diversity of concerns and priorities we are continually working to make sure that the needs of all of our community members are met for instance in a August and September we were pleased to host 60 residents in in a in a community engagement Academy conducted entirely in Spanish each week during
324these periodics participants can learn about a different aspect of mpd's work including recruit training Patrol Services common policing scenarios and use of force to help serve our community members with limited English proficiency this month we also launched a new process to ensure that part parties involved in a police incident or traffic C crash can request a translated report and in 2022 we will develop refresher training on issues of importance to the lgbtq plus Community to be delivered in 2025 to ensure our members are well prepared to welcome and support the large numbers of visitors expected to travel to DC as we host World Pride 2025 we are also committed to working to meet the needs of community members members facing chronic or crisis behavioral health challenges MPD is an active partner with the Department of
325Behavioral Health dbh fire and EMS and the office of unified Communications and local hospitals to reduce criminal involvement and unnecessary emergency room visits for these individuals I have already met with Dr bazon to discuss our ongoing partnership with dbh we are particularly looking forward to the launch of the DC sobering and stabilization Center and new dbh behavior health professionals who will be joining our co- Response Team all expected to launch this fall just this morning we learned that MPD has been granted a an award by the Department of Justice that will also allow us to expand the co-response pilot in our seventh District we are also wrapping up our two-year project to ensure all members have been trained in either Mental Health First Aid or or as Crisis Intervention officers we re recognize that all
326of these efforts while comprehensive may not be sufficient to reverse longer Trends in violent crimes traffic safety and community relations however they illustrate how a willingness to continually work together to assess and try new approaches would be successful in the long run that is what I am committed to Bringing to MPD and our communities in addition to focusing on pressing Community needs it is critical that MPD continue to address employee well-being these are good Investments by the the city because public servants who are healthy and well can better serve and support the community as you know I came to MPD as the first Chief Equity officer I was able to listen to the voices throughout the department sworn and civilian of every Rank and grade our work in the diversity equity and inclusion or Dei
327space continues and we are making important strides forward in that role I recommended a fundamental reconstruct restructuring of how the department handles equal employment opportunity or eeo issues while all allegations are initially handled by the eeo office for intake and preliminary assessment of whether or not the allegation is an eeo issue the investigation if merited will now be handled by the internal affairs division a team that is experienced in thorough investigation this change which was implemented this summer will help to ensure that every employee with concerns is heard and respected in addition ahead of my successful track record at Park police and expanding the diversity in promotions and sworn professional leaderships I will be examining ways to enhance this at MPD the department is also focused on both the physical and mental health and wellness
328of our employees my experience in New York on 911 and its aftermath reinforced me the importance of helping law enforcement to cope with the challenging social issues they see every day shortly after January 6 then Chief Robert Conti conducted a public debrief with Dr Beverly Anderson the head of our employee assistance program to help destigmatize seeking support for mental wellness and encourage our members to do so as well in October I will host my own conversation with Dr Anderson that will be broadcast live for MPD members this reinforces the discussion I have consistently had with members about the importance of paying attention to their own wellness and mental health in addition Under My Le leadership as the chief Equity officer we expanded the Department's chaplain core program from one to six Faith leaders from our
329communities volunteering to serve and support our members we are also working to establish a peer support program these internal initiatives aligned with the assessment of MPD organizational culture by The Police Executive Research form or perf upon the request of then Chief kti perf identified opportunities for improvements and suggest options to help address these issues raised perf recommended working to strengthen inclusivity in our organization support the wellbeing of our members and enhance our internal Communications which align with my priorities as well I know that these efforts will make mpda a better place for our employees to work and Thrive this is a this is vital as we Face the lowest Staffing levels in 50 years with challenging challenges sorry in both recruiting and retention retention mirroring Trends in law enforcement and the labor market generally Across
330the Nation at Park police I was able to successfully expand recruitment by mobilizing a sworn recruitment team which I am putting in place at MPD while I stand corrected we put in place effective this Sunday we need to reinvigorate recruiting efforts that have been pivoted to marketing and virtual platforms during the pandemic I have added sworn members back to the recruiting team to support in-person engagement with prospective recruits and to help with more specialized recruiting we have also increased employee bonuses for referring individuals who successfully complete the cadet program $2,000 or recruit training $5,000 direct recruitment by dedicated MPD employees is certainly one of the most effective ways to attract energized and committed new officers efforts this year are paying off with attrition to date down 16% compared to last fiscal year and 21 new
331officers starting this Monday the largest class in more than a year this gives reason for some optimism in this critical area in closing thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today I am passionate about serving the city and the department so that the district will be a safe and vibrant City for all residents and visitors with my experiences both within and outside MPD I bring a fresh perspective and energy to this work I appreciate your consideration of my nomination and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have thank you thank you so much acting Chief Smith for your leadership of the agency thus far uh in your acting capacity and for sharing that testimony I think it is really powerful to hear about your experiences as a child how they kind of
332inform your work today a lot of the initiatives that you've already been leading on from our curfews to our crime intervention initiatives um the work around supporting mental health for our officers which I think is is really important and uh leaning on the partnership with some of our other agencies for work that we we need effective partnership on um I hope you had an opportunity today to hear some of the public testimony um and I was really moved by the consistency that we heard from so many folks who have had the opportunity to work with you already um feel really empowered feel really heard feel really inspired uh from our faith leaders to our citizens advisory councils um to other Commissioners to other residents and Community leaders and so I hope you had a chance
333to hear some of that um and and the work going on um so for colleagues benefit so you all know we're going to do 10minute rounds um our order thus far so people can keep track for themselves is myself council member Henderson council member gray council member Allen members of the committee and then council members McDuffy nidau Parker fruman Lewis George and anyone else who joins will go after Council BR Lewis George all right so I'd like to uh start by asking you about plans to address crime in the district as you know last night we surpassed the terrible Grim Milestone of 209 homicides in the district this year um you know we spoke about the teenage boy who lost his life took on violence right outside of his high school um and under your
334leadership over the last two months MPD has announced and some of which we heard about in your opening remarks a number of initiatives aimed at reducing violent crime including a violent crime suppression initiative carjacking task force and I'd like to ask you to speak to two things on this first what has been the impact of those initiatives to date and as you hopefully work to scale up those initiatives uh what is the plan to make sure that they're sustainable and that we can continue to measure impact okay well thank you for the question and certainly um appreciate your support in the space as as I've had an opportunity to meet with you and attend some of the public safety um um uh committees that you've hosted as well um so yeah again when it comes
335to the violent crime suppression initiatives um and the armed carjacking task force um what we like to do is remain in that same posture um what we're finding is that during certain periods of time um during the week we've looked at um data um evidence-based data that has led us to believe when crime is is occurring at a certain period of time throughout the week and overnight and what we will do is continue to enforce our Drive our resources to those areas um the interesting thing about when you talk about violent crime and when we talk about homicides um it's it's a lot more than just moving resources around the city to to address some of these concerns which is why we initi app the public safety walk so that we can really strengthen our
336relationships with the community so that they can provide information uh to us uh with regards to where some of this violent crime is taking place um when we look at um the patterns and Trends and what how we're doing in that space over the last um 30 to 60 days since we've launched the initiative we've seen a decrease in most of those areas we've seen a decrease in the last 30 to 60 days since we've launched the initiatives and our homicides uh we have not seen a decrease in our assault with deadly weapons that still up we've also seen decreases in our robberies and decreases in our armed carjackings um during that time period decreases in the areas that you've had the focus um we initially had um the robbery suppression um initiative in one
337area of the district uh what I did when I came on um as as the nominee I spent some time looking at a lot of the data and some of the evidence and re realize that we really needed to take a Citywide approach a Citywide approach to addressing some of these crimes because there were crimes happening all armed car jackings was not limited to one area it was actually um occurring across the District of Colombia which is why we stood up the violent crime um suppression initiatives which which is again um really tied to um resources which is our Personnel during that time period of of of when we see crime really increasing across the district and what we found is that it it's really between Thursdays and early Monday mornings and we've also activated
338our joint um operation Command Center and what that does is that we have an inspector that oversees that joint operation Command Center and it allows us to be able to have all districts engaged in any crime that's happening across the District of Colombia and that particular Commander or or in or inspector can move those resources around the district in order to support those efforts okay and can we expect to see data posted publicly about the efficacy of those initiatives yes ma'am we can certainly um we have the data I I track it every single morning when we get up between Thursday uh and and and Monday morning um and we will certainly be able to provide that for you as well ma'am okay and one of the things I um assume is kind of embedded
339in in your comments about needing a city-wide approach is there's a I have a concern and others have a concern that if you have an intervention in one area are we just moving crime uh around to a different block if we're not seeing the reductions in violent crime across the city in the in the whole numbers that we're looking at which is why we have the Citywide approach I think sometimes when you only focus on one concentrated area it has the tendency to push crime in different areas which is why having the joint operation Command Center to really help us address crime in real time gives us the opportunity to to to manage if you will if something's happening in the first district um we know there's a robbery that's taking place there's a major
340throughfare that takes them through the second district we can posture those resources to really inter interrupt and detect that crime that may be happening in another area okay thank you yes ma'am um you mentioned on a number of occasions in your written responses to our prehearing questions that there's a strategic plan that you'll be unveiling soon uh to address a wide range of issues beyond what you've already talked about today can you go into more detail about some of the specific initiatives that this broader plan will incorporate um and when we can expect it to be implemented and and what you're hoping to achieve so this is the Strategic plan that I provided to everyone and it's also on our on our MPD dc. dcov website and it talks about primarily uh three areas that
341I would like to focus on it's and it's a vision for safer communities um and it is it is prevention and intervention sustainability and accountability and so in this plan we talk about pretty much a Citywide approach in order to determine how we will continue to address um safe have safer communities um across the District of Columbia and it and it starts with our people and I think one of the things that I kept hearing over and over and over again uh from the residents across the district was that um you know they did not see themselves in this plan and so what I wanted to make sure was that in this strategic update um because it is an update because there are some great things that we were already doing at MPD so there
342was no real a real reason to change those but what we wanted to do was strengthen that and build up on those those other initiatives that were already in place and so what we wanted to do was focus on people in places we wanted to focus on how we um deploy if you will we don't like the terminology deploy or reassign our resources uh we want to also U focus on keeping our youth safe um that is really really critical um and that also encompasses us having this all of government approach working with DCPS working with dyrs working with our Deputy Mayor Public Safety and Justice in these spaces um and also looking at when we talk about accountability I'm looking at how we conduct our investigations looking at the many Partnerships that we have
343with Federal local and state agencies um and then the sustainab sustainability part for me is being able to invest in our membership um working with our officers enhancing our Workforce which once again includes our Recruitment and Retention piece uh we are also talking about leveraging technology one of the key things right now the CCTV cameras we've heard um from members of the council who also stated that that would be something are beneficial that they would like to have in their respective districts um and then strengthening trust um in our relationships within the community I believe that relationship based policing um is a way for us to really strengthen the trust in our communities um the the residents businesses continue to say over and over again that they would like to see a police presence and
344clearly being down almost 500 officers is a lot I mean in comparison to the number of officers that we have in each district that's almost one District of officers that we we're we're um uh we have a decrease in Personnel um and so what we want to do is with the officers that we have in order for us to ensure that they are present in those spaces is the main reason why we conducted those Community safety walks and then there are other opportunities for our officers to be impactful in that space by being present for the residents okay thank you very much um and thank you for for sharing the Strategic plan at your opening introductory press conference you talked about uh as you're talking about a little bit today this whole of government approach
345to Public Safety and you indicated that you really want to take a lead on that what does that mean to you what specific agencies does that include and what how do you envision taking a lead on this whole of government approach to Public Safety well that's I appreciate you for asking that and that is really really critical this where we are as it relates to Public Safety you know not having enough officers um numers we would like to be and having our public dep oh thank you uh your mic if you could yeah I'm sorry I know hard to get used to it's easy to get lost in the shuffle um but um you know having this all of government government approach is really critical as we address Public Safety because I've heard others say
346it and I truly believe it you know like where we are as it relates to Crime you know we can't police our way out of this we're going to have to have the support of some of the other agencies um that are in in in DC government and I will say um they've been very supportive I've met with if if not all just about all of the of the directors or interim directors of our DC um agencies and all of them have been willing to come to the table to support us in this space I'll go over Department of of Behavioral Health with Dr bazron um you know we're getting ready to launch a couple of of initiatives with her and we've been working very closely with her that's really important to me what we
347have officers who come in contact with unsheltered individuals or folks who are dealing with mental crisis and challenges it's really important to me that our officers know how to approach those individuals in the streets when we talk about um Department of Parks and Recreation um I think about the work that um theie Freeman director Freeman is doing in that space at a lot of our Parks we have hype night where we we as the Metropolitan Police Department are heavily engaged in the efforts around making sure that our kids have a safe space to go um overnight right um when I think about um dgs I heard some conversations earlier about our facilities right uh working with um director Hunter um in that space to ensure that we can provide him with some of those critical
348things that are that are in our um that that our officers are are dealing with inside of our facilities and make sure some of these work um contracts and so when I think of a hall all of government approach I think of dyrs DCPS all of those entities supporting us in this effort and they have been well thank you very much I'm going to try to model good behavior uh and turn to my next colleague uh for a round of questions council member at large council member Christina Henderson and member of the committee please go ahead um thank you chairperson Pento and uh good afternoon Chief Smith good afternoon I'm I'm going to try to Center my questions in sort of three different topic areas but the the first I want to talk a little
349bit about drugs um you and I talked about this when we met in terms of um when I map the areas where we have opioid overdose calls with the areas where we have high rates of crime not surprisingly we definitely see uh a correlation between the two and while I'm certainly not blaming people who have addiction for you know what is happening on the streets I do feel like part of this does have to do with the the dealers who are out there putting um drugs on our streets um are are contributing to some of the the crime pieces that we are seeing and so I'm curious what is your philosophy around drug-related arrest um there used to be a time where officers would say oh well you know they might have fentanyl on them
350but they also have cannabis and um you know I don't think the jury is going to convict and therefore we're we're not going to sort of engage what is your philosophy around how the districts and officers should be engaging when they see drug rated crimes happening in an area uh well certainly thank you for that question and thank you for the opportunity to meet with you um um back in August was it was very refreshing and to learn some of the things that you really focused on uh uh with respect to your constituents um My Philosophy is that we should be enforcing those types of uh crimes right if there if they're drug related incidents our officers should be enforcing it we really shouldn't be concerned about how the courts are going to deal with
351it um if they have um illegal drugs in their possession we should be addressing that uh one of the things that we that as an agency we work very closely with the DEA uh when it comes to you know we have these opioid and fentol for me there is the there is the investigative piece right um but then there's the piece that uh DEA works very drug and Enforcement Administration works very closely with us uh when we come in contact with um residents or citizens who have a significant amount or any amount of fentanyl in their possession uh and and the the key for me and I think the our executive team is really to find out where it's coming from right how how do we um have an opportunity to determine how these drugs
352are coming into the District of Columbia and clearly that comes through our investigative piece um prior to the after the enforcement okay I I mean I agree I think we need to sort of get down to you know what do they call the Corner boys for instance are not necessarily the main attraction here but rather who is at the top of the food chain who is directing some of these things um and we've had a similar conversation and I've had this conversation um with the US attorney Matt Graves about uh when it comes to char car jackings you mentioned in your testimony uh you know a big I think a stat that we should be paying attention to which is that two-thirds of the carjackings are being done by youth under the age of 18
353to what ex you know your predecessor used to often talk about the need for accountability and how we um sort of manage the two around understanding your youthfulness but also you need to be accountable and there should be some sort of level of consequences for the actions that you have done against the community how do you approach this especially giving your background as a social worker your background under your childhood um what is your understanding in terms of how we deal with youth because to me like 2third being under 18 there's something else going on here a 16-year-old is certainly not leading a carjacking ring in our city and so first thank you for that and and and my Approach is the same as former uh Chief Robert J KY look there has to be
354some accountability which is why in my conversations and I've had some conversations with um um my colleagues um my executive team with regards to how we approach dealing with young people in this space and I've said it to many of the residents listen um we want to prevent as best we can for our our youth here in the district of Colombia um being in a space or place where they end up in the system however if we find that there are young people out there committing these crimes carjackings with guns with weapons the expectation is that they will be held accountable and and again what I've um talked about with regards to our violent crime um suppression initiatives we found that there were a lot of juveniles um not only arrested for some of the
355carjackings but a lot of them were charged at least 10 11 12 times for different carjackings that have AC occurred across the city that's a problem for us I mean it's even more of a problem when we have young people out after hours robbing people of their of their of their personal property where people are working very hard day in and day out and to have a young person as young as 12 years old to to approach them with a weapon in their hand absolutely there needs to be accountability in that space and we have we have um um sent this message to our Workforce um with respect to and I'll say this with respect to the reason why uh we're trying to really enhance this um curfew pilot program because there are some some
356youth that are out there that just have no idea what's happening in their homes some of them don't want to go to homes and if we have an opportunity as MPD to really um take possession of some of these young people and provide and assist them with dyrs and provide them with the resources and benefit that their family need we can we can certainly help in reducing some of this typ this type of crime and activity let's talk a little bit about that for a second um I think you know a couple of months ago there was an article in the Washington Post that was talking about an 11-year-old who had been arrested for several armed robberies um and essentially the parent was like I have lost control of the situation here uh are we
357are we are we trying to fight this with one hand behind our back because we're not engaging parents in the accountability framework that's a good question and and so I I I think that would be outside of my purview but I'm certainly uh engag I certain but I would be engaged in having those conversations because in one of either a press conference or conversation that I had with the with the residents is that listen parents there there's some accountability somewhere but if a parent can't do anything else with their child that's where the resources should be availed to them to provide some type of of of support for that mother or that father who's really having a difficult time with these encour some of some of these encourageable youth okay I I don't I did
358not mean for that to be a land Mind of a question I think it is it is um I feel like sometimes we're talking around these issues but when I think of you know I think it's one thing if I'm talking about a 17 or 18-year-old young person when I'm talking about a 10-year-old or 11-year-old or 12-year-old who has access to weapons then I have to wonder where did the weapons come from and then you know what parts um all of those play um in terms of you know I appreciate your testimony around um how you all want to work to to um you know I think you talked a little bit about officer friendly and some of those things um one of the things that I hear from community members often is that they
359will um walk past the police car but the officer is in the car or they walk past the scene the officers there um I I think one thing that uh uh and we could talk about this later but because we're going to have to talk about this as we talk about some of these court cases for the January 6th things but you know I turn on TV and I see 50 MPD officers standing in front of a federal courthouse not doing anything but protecting right but our in our neighborhoods where we need folks how how do we think about deployment in this way but also making sure yes you have enough officers that you need at a specific scene or situation but that it doesn't seem like there are just 20 people who are there
360when perhaps five could have gotten the job done right then and it also depends on you know the nature of what's occurring in that particular area at that time or if we have a specific protecte or protes um in that space where you may see an increase um of officers in that space but but that is something that we do on a regular basis with our uh Command Staff and our leadership is look at how uh we reassign or deploy resources for either large scale events or as you stay as state as we're protecting a particular area um you know one of the things that none of us as law enforcement leaders across the country want to ever engage in um is is having a large group or crowds converge in a particular area and
361not be able to have the law enforce some support that we need to manage those crowds um I totally understand I do think though there should be some nimbleness for us to recognize if there are more officers than there are protesters or journalists or anyone else then perhaps it's okay you you you and you we're going to move you on um to some other part of the city um and that's not just with you know events like I'm talking about a federal courthouse but even you know after a particular incident has occurred um whether it be an accident or or something to that effect I think that just sort of leads into people feeling as though yeah we have a lot of police officers but are they actively doing um proactive work around prevention of
362crime but I I'm well over my time um thank you so much Chief thank you ma'am I appreciate your time thank you very much council member Henderson now G to turn to our uh board six colleague council member Charles Allen for round of questions um and also We'll add a couple minutes to the clock to make sure you have time for opening statement thank you very much I appreciate that and uh thank you chair Pinto for organizing and holding today's hearing um and to Chief thank you very much for uh putting your hand up to be able to to take on this really big responsibility um and to the sworn and civilian leadership that's there with you uh and getting your back good to see you all as well so thank you um obviously Public
363Safety is our number one pressing issue affecting our city uh you've already gone through the stat violent crime compared to last year 37% up and yesterday as we have sadly noted many times we crossed a very Grim Milestone and it's awful to reach that Milestone but especially when we talk about late September and too many families have lost a loved one too many neighbors are afraid of gun violence if we look back to last year efforts that went on across the district led to a decrease in homicides in 2022 closed out with about a 4% drop in violent crime and a nearly 10% reduction in murder and not about a 25% drop in homicides for the second half of the year compared to the first half of the year but the reversal of those Trends
364and the increase in violent crime this year has erased that progress and added more violence on top of it um and when compared to other cities across the country the district's out of Step uh it is trending the opposite direction and all of us care deeply about that and want to see that changed I do think there's several reasons for all of that all of which stem from a incoherent design and current state of the district's uh Criminal Justice System we have uh the US attorney's office office is overstretched and has for years had a higher rate of no papering than comparable Ci's prosecutors we have a department of forensic sciences that has not been accredited to process crime scene evidence for more than two years forcing prosecutors to have to Outsource evidence at additional
365expense and time we still have cases uh we don't know how many have been or will be dismissed stemming from misconduct within the crime suppression team being placed on ministrative leave for misconduct but that's put dozens of people who carry guns back out on the street since last November is directly tied to new incidents of violence including homicide we've got a criminal code that is more than a century old and it's too vague to be able to help juries and judges hand down accountability we've got incredibly big shoes to fill at the office of gun violence prevention since the tragic passing of Linda Harley Harper attempting to bring that whole of government approach to gun violence our 911 call center is seriously understaffed and stretched to its limits I get regular complaints from residents they're
366put on hold or they never reach somebody when they need help our violence Interruption programs at the office of a safety engagement are under underfunded they need stronger Direction DC residents convicted a crime serve time in federal prison far from the district where we cannot provide some of those interventions and Rehabilitation that we want during their incarceration and then the Federal Bureau of Prisons returns those residents home with little to no notice to the district and without plans or support for their successful return home our criminal justice system is a coalition of many agencies both local and federal that are all connected and they share a common Mission and when one agency is not performing at the level we need it to be it negatively impacts and it's felt by the entire system in short
367I think our public safety system is a mess it's also why we're here today because people are suffering from it um now you notice most of what I outlined did not include our acting Chief Smith and her Department um much of this Falls beyond the reach of anyone in DC government and until the federal government Returns the district to all of its functions we want that uh but MPD is obviously one of the most Central departments in our Public Safety cluster over 80% of our 911 calls made in the district are dispatched to MPD meaning that for a vast majority of cases we're sending someone in uniform to handle it our current system asks MPD officers to be Mental Health Counselors assd Behavioral Health Specialists social workers homeless service providers teachers mentors ow and on
368top of that make an arrest close the case and bring accountability to those who want to do harm to our communities that's not fair either the community or to those officers that are responding themselves and I think it's also distorted our view and led us to see MPD as the one and only agency in charge of ensuring Public Safety we all want gun violence to end this is our shared Focus MPD is an important and crucial component of that but we also need to stress it's not the only one and it's unfair to put the entire system's failures and its expectations on our officers a whole government response to gun violence and crime sounds good but actions have to meet those words and I'm very glad to hear you Echo that I appreciate that thank
369you yes sir the district needs a comprehensive strategy to combat gun violence and other parts of our government and sister agencies have got to step up I have a question about that that I'm looking forward to asking you it's going to require collaboration and shared Vision because of that I hope we all want Chief Smith to be successful and I look forward to hearing from you today about your vision for Public Safety how MPD fits into that vision and how MPD is going to work with all those sister agencies to meet the shared goals um so let me jump straight into my questions um you talked about this a little bit and I know when you and I met earlier in August as well and thank you very much for taking the time to do
370that um you wanted you outlined a lot about what you see uh successes you want to build on that uh your predecessors and MPD has been working on but also ways that you want to um I don't know if depart is the right word but the way that you would change uh something and you outlin some of those initiatives um one of the ones I wanted to ask about is you talked a little bit about using data to help track Trends uh I think you noted something about a identifying a trend around a Thursday and then helping shape and shift uh resources there and I want to see if you could kind add a little bit more about that and kind of how you're using that strategy because intelligence L policing is something we have
371been doing you know we all want that right use the data to help inform our actions can you talk about is that something new is there a new effort that's been launched within that or is there a different way you're trying to add resources into that type of intelligence l so so thank you so much for that and I appreciate you also for taking the time to spend with me and and and learn a little bit about who I am in in the space um as as the acting Chief um so so it's nothing it's not different um we we've always used um data as part of intelligence-led policing but one of the things that we needed to do um from a public safety perspective when we see a particular increase and any type of
372crime we have to re-evaluate um our data look at it to see exactly where the crime Trends and patterns are happening and that's what we tasked our commanders to do and our Chiefs to do and when and and also some of our crime analysts we had them to really um look at a create a density map for me so that we can see where these arm car jackings robberies and and and shooting spr were occurring across the district which which allowed us to determine that we needed to um enhance our resources in certain areas during a certain period of time um um during a certain U time period dur of the week um to provide resources in those areas one of the things that I said to the team is that often times and I've
373heard you say it and I've heard other folks say it as well may not have been you council member but um making sure our officers that are in those areas that they're present right and that that creates deterrence and it also interrupts and I believe it interrupts um uh an incident or a situation from occurring and so the only thing we did in that space we it's not anything any different we just reassessed how we are utilizing our resources when it comes to fighting crime in those particular areas and that that particular time frame where we were seeing an increase in violent crime great thank you I appreciate it yes sir um I really appreciate I think it was a response you had to to cheer Pinto earlier about that hole of government response and
374I really appreciate you recognizing how important that is and I have been very critical of of the other agencies um they got to step up um they got to step up and one of the comments you made so you said most of them said yes when you said buying into this whole government who said no so so so when I said most of them for clarification I haven't met with everyone okay so I I I do offer the opportunity for the others to come to the table and join me when I can find time on my schedule have they have to we're Counting tell us tell us who says no no should not be in their I tell you council member um Alan everyone has been really supportive of and and and I will tell
375you um uh deputy mayor of Public Safety and Justice she hosts a um we host public she host a public safety meeting with all of the directors um on a monthly basis and that's the opportunity for us to really iron out and talk about some of the support that not just MPD needs what other agencies are going to do to support us in the public safety space um and it's and and I think in the in the two months that I've been here it it has really been uh a collaborative effort good that's good to hear yes sir um I wanted to touch on another item um you know you you talked about and I think one of the the efforts you're trying to do is obviously make sure that visibility is out there that
376Community engagement is there um I love the fact that on page 21 um Commander Hall joined me for one of my Public Safety walks and you got that in there um and I do think we got some really great commanders on the force um one of the things I hear when I'm talking with officers on a lot of these safety walks um is the frustration and frankly the the the hit to morale it takes when they make an arrest they believe they've made a really good case and usao doesn't pay for that um they also never find out why almost every officer I know wants to do their job better tomorrow than they did it today day yeah so they want that feedback yes if something didn't quite go right they want to know um
377because they want to do their job better the very next time but every time I ask them did you ever find out why that case was not papered they say I never found out I've got a situation um eth and AG Northeast MPD first district has made an arrest for somebody uh possession to intent possession with intent to distribute um crack cocaine I believe in had a firearm Commander tells me got no paper month later officers make the exact same arrest of the exact same person at the exact same intersection with the exact same charges it was no papered how do you plan to work with the usao both to make sure that papering decisions are moving forward but also in the event that they had to make a choice to say you know what
378I couldn't move that forward because tell us what the because was um and how do we help get that to our officers how do you want to work with usao to help improve that well that's a very good question we are already working with u Matt Graves and his team I will I will tell you um that was a concern that I heard when I was uh as Chief Equity officer and we were conducting um some of the voices tours and officers wanting to know exactly what was the reason why um we have tasked our detectives um that are assigned to all of those districts Ure that we're providing them with an update but but going back to um Matt Graves um a USA Matt Graves and his team um they have been providing training
379uh to our executive level team first um so that number one we can make we make sure we understand why some of the cases may not be papered um if there are things that we need to do within our own um agency as far as our report writing and making sure that there are any there are not any um U significant issues with our reports and that's critical to us because we want to make sure that we provide the a USA um with the reporting document to ensure that there is a a a way where some of these cases can be papered um and we've been very fortunate in the two months that I can say that I've been here we've been having um face-to-face meetings on a monthly basis with Matt Graves and his
380team but they've also taken an additional step to they will be going out to our and not Matt himself but members of his team will be going out to our roll calls to train some of our officers as well and I think that's ENT that's a big step um towards making sure that there is a collaborative effort around either why a case was not papered and or how when you write your reports that cases can be papered and I'm not saying that the reports are wrong but I think it's really important that the officers need to know the why behind it I I completely agree I really I'm glad to hear that conversation is going on and I think it's got to get down to that individual officer level absolutely um because that's where I
381hear just the demoralization of like I feel like I feel like the action I'm taking isn't uh isn't getting what it needs to happen right I time's going to run out in just a moment so let me get one last question in if I can um I heard my at large colleague kind of talking about some deployment decisions that you're looking at and one of the things that we've seen in recent months I think there's been uh greater public scrutiny with respect to how the department chooses to deploy its officers some members of the community are concerned that officers are disproportionately deployed to more affluent corridors instead of being stationed areas experiencing the highest rates of violence similarly concerns that senior officers who have some of the best experience um are being deployed to other
382parts of the cities that are experiencing lower levels of crime um what are the factors that you're going to be looking at as you determine how what's the optimal deployment across the city uh especially recognizing the the length of service and experience you might have with some of your more senior officers well I I think uh certainly thank you for that question and I had been hearing that as well and I think that what we do is you know all officers that graduate from our Police Academy are assigned to our Patrol District and one of the things that we always want to make sure is that we have um uh our our assignments are not necessarily driven by demographics and other things that people might assume but it's really um we have calls for service
383in some areas that are much more higher um in different Wards across the district and we want to make sure we have enough Personnel assigned to those areas to address that and certainly there's going to be the opportunity for me to re-evaluate and reassess how we've done it in the past to see if there's a need for us to do something different going forward in the future um but I support um the the way we um assign and I know people say redeploy but assign our officers out of the academy um to our Sixth and Seventh District and I recognize that uh some people find those officers to be new officers but they have the appropriate training out of the academy we have additional uh field training officers uh actually the highest number of field
384training officers um in our Sixth and Seventh District to to ensure that they have quality training in in that space uh we also recognize that there's an opportunity um for officers to really come out and and do great work all across our district I don't I don't believe since I've been here that our officers are disproportionately assigned um I think we are strategic about making sure that in areas where we have low numbers of officers uh we want to raise those numbers in that space okay thank you very much appreciate the answer appreciate and look forward to working with you than very much you CH Pinto thank you council member Allan council member Parker okay thank you um and thank you for being here today acting Chief Smith I'm really excited um to dig into
385your report um and I'm glad that you made that public for everyone I wanted to First start before um going deeper into your vision just around the difficulties you're anticipating being the new chief of MPD and what you think might stand in the way of you actually realizing the visions that you've laid out in your strategic plan so what what do I find to be challenging obviously is the is the is the the significant number of homicides and the guns that are coming um in the city and and also the guns that end up in illegal guns and some some ghost guns that ends up in the hands of some of our young people um I think that's going to be a challenge for us but I think that with the relationships that we have
386with our federal uh Partners specifically ATF um and some of the other agencies uh we will be able to address that it's going to take some time um I think that what what I I would like to say and want to say and I stand firm on this is that as we continue to come up with different ways and strategies um to deal with crime based on evidence and data uh it's going to take some time it didn't take you know we didn't get here overnight um so we're going to have to really be strategic in our approach with working with other agencies but also looking within our own a with within our own Department to determine what other avenues or approaches we need to take in order to drive down crime and that's my
387biggest challenge I think my biggest challenge um but I think that we have a very dedicated and committed uh uh members um in our leadership team and our executive team who are willing to take on the task to move this to to move the efforts around U safer communities and driving crime down um I think we they're ready and poised to do that work I Echo your concerns around influx of guns into our city um and how they are just rapidly uh exchanging hands on our streets um and I'm calling on our colleag down street to enact Common Sense gun regulations um and so thank you for that I want to go uh and start digging into your strategic plan is one of the uh top pillars of your plan is uh around prevention and
388intervention can you speak to the work that you want or that MPD is uh pursuing um to strengthen the network of violence Interruption programs uh across the city as a Avenue of intervention and prevention I think one of the things that we I think we've been working in that space with um some of our DC government agencies in order to to to to prevent I think that there there are certainly um other avenues that we can take and one of course with when you speak about um the Strategic plan is really looking at a way how we can really prevent some of the crime that our youth are are U engaged in um and and I I don't one of and I say our youth because the youth are engaged in violent crime um it
389has to start young you know we and when I say it has to starting we have to start dealing with our young people at a much earlier age um and that also extends to some of our um colleagues and DC government to assist us in that space which is why we have the um um curfew pilot program uh one of the other things that I plan to do specific to my strategic plan is host um the chief's advisory youth Council uh where we will we will work with or I will have the opportunity to sit down with youth who are recommended by dcph school counselors dcph Charter Schools as well as some of our school resource officers to really talk with some of our youth about emerging Trends and things that they're seeing in the
390school um then the other aspect of working with the prevention piece is um having the opportunity to host what I would like to call Blue Table talks um J pinket I'm pretty sure you know who she is um had the red table talk um I'd like to host the Blue Table talk where we can talk with at risk youth some of those kids who are already in the system and really having an opportunity um to be impactful in their lives and and that's the prevention piece around the significant violence when I think about the prevention piece around gun trafficking there are some things that I think we can do internally within our agency as far as um establishing we have not done this yet but looking at maybe establishing a gun trafficking unit uh within
391the Metropolitan Police Department to do a couple of different things number one when we have the opportunity to take the guns off the street we need to really do some tracking and following up on where the guns are coming from um and really having a a team that may be um strategically focused on dealing with uh gun trafficking and it has not been launched yet um this is just a strategy that I'm working with in my in my head and I think we had a a couple of um items presented in the Strategic plan specifically related to gun trafficking investigations I also appreciate you wanting to talk to our young people there are so many people that are talking about a youth in the city and too few people that are willing to engage them
392directly and talk to them related to that in the Strategic plan under uh your school zone traffic enforcement and education uh the plan lays out that in these School safe zones there will be at least one MPD officer deployed to ensure that young people can get to and from school safely are these school safety zones identified and made public or is this something that MPD is planning to launch in the future um I I think that um well you know again you know being present for our young people is really important to me um we will make those public council member if they are not already um I've kind of allowed my team to take the lead on that but I can certainly U ensure that if it's not public we'll make sure we we
393have have my team follow up with you and present those areas where they are I really appreciate that and I bring that up on the heels of the shooting just yesterday involving a dumbar high school student um that was coming from school and that is while a very tragic situation mirrors so many of our young people that are having to Traverse so many different dangerous communities traveling to and from school and so that would be helpful to have that information it would also be helpful to uh allow those school safety zones to be more dynamic in nature one of the criticisms I've had of our safe passage work is that uh once things are locked in through the budget uh those are usually the safe passage zones for the year and as you know uh
394violence and safety are matters that are pretty Dynamic and things shift and change throughout the course of the school year and I would just put in a plug that we have serious needs in W five and I would really be interested in working with you to beef up school safety zones uh across the W I wanted to come back uh and to a question I asked of several public Witnesses today um as you're working to bolster MPD performance um and I there are many things that people are looking to uh to define whether or not MPD is successful obviously the violence in the city the homicide rate uh but it it is more expansive uh than that uh including MPD culture community relations and the list goes on can you talk about uh some of
395the benchmarks of success you've laid out for your team in the near future and how you're uh working towards them and making sure that you're making progress so um a couple of things so one of the things that I've heard um the leadership team as well as some of our uh members across the workforce um talk about is the communication or the lack of communication and so one of the things that I've implemented um is executive leadership meetings uh weekly with the executive team I find that uh we also need to ensure that we're creating one message across the workforce and that's internal to the organization but also external to our stakeholders and so on a weekly basis we we conduct I conduct lead the executive U leadership briefings and then on a bi-weekly basis
396the executive team along with myself um spend time with sharing um those new initiatives ideas uh with our directors inspectors lieutenants and captains our midlevel M leadership team across the workforce and the expectation there is for them to share that information with the rest of their subordinates um in in in various areas of the organization um then I take another step on a quarterly basis I meet individually with our captains and our lieutenants um and that's critical to me when you talk about um how I am different things that we're doing with our with our our membership because they are the ones that are actually um within the districts on an everyday basis working with our officers and our sergeants and I find that it's very very important that they hear from me um as
397well as the leader ship team from time to time on on on things that may be happening at their level that we can also address so that it doesn't become a major issue within the organization you I am coming up one time I I do have more questions but I'll wait yes sir thank you very much Council Parker and we'll come back for another round council member fan thank you very much chair um pinto and thank you acting Chief Smith I I'll join in thanking you for taking the time to talk and to uh preview some of your priorities in your approach over the summer um really encouraged by many of the things that you've been talking about and the and the energy that you bring I think I think lots of people are impressed
398by that energy and and I think it in itself probably makes a difference in changing the way that we feel about the the public safety landscape um I'm going to touch on a set of issues that came up a lot in with the public Witnesses um you you're doing a lot to try to reach out to the community and and you've identified the challenge of building trust in the community and I I applaud you for all of the Outreach and availability uh that you've made of yourself and and of your team another side of that is accountability when there is police misconduct and that's been a a source of a fair amount of controversy for some time um and where there isn't accountability for police misconduct um that erodes confidence in the community so it's
399part of that community Outreach and I'm curious how you see that issue what kinds of uh approaches you expect to take in order to ensure that um that your officers are living up to the standard that you want to seor them well thank you for that question and also I I appreciate you for attending our community engagement Academy um um last month um I think it was this month um just to kind of get an idea of of what we do within the Metropol Police Department as it as it relates to use of force and and how we conduct traffic and so forth so thank you so much for attending that um cea um and so when it comes to accountability clearly um that is certainly built in the fabric of how we um how
400the community and the residents um see us um holding our officers accountable whenever there's misconduct I believe that what we have in place to date um is certainly sustainable um I will continue to work with community members I'll also continue to work with the council members as well and and the mayor's office um on on issues specifically related to uh misconduct within the Metropolitan Police Department uh we have two Avenues um for anyone to report misconducts we have the office of police complaints uh office of comp OPC where they can uh report any misconduct and we also have our own Internal Affairs um Bureau um which which handles all of the misconduct investigation across the force um what I've also found is that when officers have um the members from the community have um initiated
401complaints through OPC um it's it's it's it's usually um um sent back to the district of to the MPD to investigate based on the nature of the allegation um and and I find that that U just based off of the the um uh data that I've I've had the opportunity to review um that we hold our officers accountable um probably uh quite significantly um um well thank you for that we do hear and you might have heard from the public testimony some there are some who feel that you know many of the complaints come back and are identified as unsubstantiated maybe they're unsubstantiated and and sometimes there had been a policy that there would just be even where there was something that might appear to to the outside to be something very serious that there
402might just be a letter that went into the file and do you have do do you have any concern about lack of confidence in the approaches of accountability that may have built up in recent years or do you think that things are going smoothly is this going to be an area that you focus on um it C it's it certainly will always be an area that we focus on when we talk about misconduct um in any police agency and specifically the Metropolitan Police Department but I I am not concerned about um how we investigate how our Internal Affairs Bureau um uh proposes discipline when it comes to uh any any form of misconduct whether it's a letter of counseling if if the um uh violation if you will or misconduct permits that then and it's
403appropriate then I will support that so so a flip side of this and and it was really great to participate in the community engagement Academy which was was an eight-week program and really I thought uh allowed me to be exposed to lots of dimensions of the Department's work and um really a great program that you offer and I commend it to anybody out there who's interested in learning more about MPD relations one of the things uh that I heard you know fairly frequently actually was a concern that there may be some requirement that are out there that make it difficult for officers to do their job a thing that came up over and over again there and in other kinds of conversations is concerns about for example the choke hold require um prohibitions and the
404way that some officers believe that very innocent contact to the wrong place on the body could expose them to liability I wonder if you could speak to that I mean it goes to this sense that some officers have that they're not being supported and they're being held responsible for things that um that are out of their control and are rise in very difficult situations but is that that a thing that you've heard about concerns about um unduly stringent requirements that may capture what is not malicious intent but innocent um behavior in a difficult setting yes that that is something that I that we've heard and and we're certainly working with um um council member pinto and others on that particular legislation to support the officers in the space of where they are um uh being
405charged if you will uh for use of force when it comes to um that particular language that's currently in legislation so we're working with um the mayor's office and the uh council member Pinto on that legislation so that's interesting there there had been one of the public Witnesses said that he thought that you were working on different kinds of legislation and we might be seeing it sometime soon and that might be one area it sounds like um you might be exploring tweet along the lines of what was done on the um the rules around Pursuit uh to try to recalibrate Le recent legislation and there's always a need to recalibrate so it wouldn't be surprising that you know take a step back and see how we make sure that a thing is refined is that
406the kind of thing is it a recalibration or do you are you thinking about something more dramatic in the change of the well I think that you know as as policing change change we should always um have the opportunity to look at our policies to ensure that they're aligned aligned with um the law enforcement and Public Safety strategies that are currently in place and so I'm certainly open to that um at at any point throughout my career in law enforcement right and then one of the things that people we all talk about all the time is is how much of the work sort of carries you into in the space of mental health and the there you know our officers very often are finding themselves in situations where they're dealing with mental health crises that
407have a safety Dimension to them but they're much more um the the required expertise is different than the expertise that they have and how are you thinking about trying to I in a sense offload the the respons responsibility to deal with mental health issues or uh maybe not in the in at the front line but so that uh people with appropriate expertise are dealing with those issues and and officers are not tied up dealing with them for long periods of time because there is this there are we have a shortage of officers and we want to use them efficiently and sometimes they're being called upon to do things that um that somebody else might be able to do better how how do you see that isue well I think right now we have trained um
408a significant number of our officers on on Crisis Intervention uh when it comes to dealing with um mental health um or disabilities um with uh individuals that they come in contact with um we are certainly working with um Department of Behavior Health in that space by bringing on Personnel or or having uh Personnel from Department of Behavior Health assigned uh with our officers and within our agency to really support us in those efforts of dealing with um um the dis members that we come in contact with who may be dealing with uh various forms of disability I recognize that we are not social workers uh which is why it's very very important to to continue um strengthening the relationship that we have with dbh well thank you very much my time is up thank you
409sir and thank you by thank you council member fruman um and to colleagues here we're going to do one more 10-minute round for anybody who needs additional time um I that's all right with you miss Chief so yes ma'am we are I I appreciate the conversation you've had with some of our colleagues and you know we had a chance to talk earlier about some of the broader kind of whole of government approach um that you're taking and in partnership with some of the other agencies and I'd like to talk a little bit about trust in police um and learning the lessons that we have over the last several years um whether that be you know concerns that Advocates have raised around jump outs um additional concerns that were addressed in the police Reform Commission and
410recommendations to improve Community Trust with police especially in communities that are most impacted by crime um and in many communities of color across the district um curious your perspective on those reforms and where you intend to be on leading the department in those efforts thank you for that question um or those questions I mean I think I stand in the place that we want to always ensure that we are strengthening trust within our communities if there is ever a time where the trust was broken um I am certainly on the uh pathway with the Department of ensuring that we strengthen those relationships by number one ensuring that when I wrote the vision for the updated strategic plan that we had all of those folks in mind and when I say all of those folks members
411of our community um how do we strengthen trust um a lot of different ways um a lot of our officers and our commanders are um engaged in our citizen advisory Council meetings on a monthly basis our commanders and our supervisors and members of the organization meet with many of the AMC's on a monthly basis we are also very engaged in uh making sure that we're meeting with our business partners and various districts across the um in v in various District um government wide um Citywide um and we're also I think when we talk about uh trust again I go back to relationship based policing being able to establish those relationships whether it's in those underprivileged areas as people speak about about um and restoring those relationships and then being able to utilize some of the
412resources that we have available that are signed to some of our district government like WS um to really be re rebuild if you will those areas like the pathways programs and things like that for those members that are there and connect them with our law enforcement agencies so that so that they can help us in that space of building trust or strengthening trust with our communities I recognize um um during the George Floyd riots there was a disconnect with law enforcement across the country um I think that right now we're in a good space and a good place here in the district of Colombia I've seen it I've witnessed it myself I've been out on public walks I've been in the grocery store and people are talking all day about wanting to have a relationship
413with the police and I'm always going to stand in a space where um it is about strengthening those relationships and we'll continue to do that and when you talk about where I stand in that space I stand on Contin to enhance relationships between our police department and the citizens that we serve here in the District of Columbia thank you very much for that' um let's talk a little bit about officers in the beat I appreciate your conversation earlier about officer friendly and some followup with Council mber Henderson um there was a Washington Post article last month about your approach thus far and various conversations that you've had with your department um about making sure that folks are in the community uh responding to crime scenes and being seen walking around the community um can you
414talk about what the reaction has been thus far to those new measures and how that's been implemented since that that meeting well since that what since that meeting um I I think it's been positive I mean I I've had the opportunity to really be out in the field with the officers I listen our our police officers are amazing they are stretched Beyond maximum capacity we've already talked about the reduction of police officers um in the Metro within the agency but they come to work every day with the you you talk about my passion I think I heard somebody talk about my passion they come to work with that same drive and that same passion but but also to that point leaders within the organization also have to model that behavior right so I I I
415have a very very tough schedule um but I think it's important that modeling that behavior starts from the top um I'm out in the field the the executive assistant Chiefs out in the field our assistant Chiefs are out in the field we have to model that behavior in order for the members of our Workforce to follow that behavior and so after that meeting yes I was very passionate about the fact that we have to be proactive and not reactive in our response to how we are engaging with our communities and I've been out in the field I mean some of them don't see me they don't like me out by myself sometimes and I try not to be but there are moments when I'm driving and I see our officers and they're doing exactly what
416we want them to do I'll even add this um so that people understand um the type of dedication that we have with our members of the Metropolitan Police Department when I was the chief executive when I was the assistant chief of our Homeland Security Bureau and I was still learning obviously the ways of how the Metropolitan Police Department um deploy their resources for special events large scale events under our Special Operations Division and I attended a really early morning roll call and it was full of officers and there were officers all in the hallway and I was like wow this is really impressive right coming from an agency that was a little smaller right I was like wow this is really cool um and when the when the C Captain concluded giving the assignments he
417asked how many officers do not have an assignment and there were about 15 to 20 officers who showed up at that at work that day waiting for an assignment we didn't ask them to come they got dressed they showed up waiting to come in case somebody else didn't come to work that is dedication and commitment All The Way We As Leaders within the organization we have to model that behavior right we have to show up we have to be present we have to be out on the street because that is what the public expects from us when I was a private I enjoyed being out in the street um engaging with the Community right I think there were some concerns about me being in this space um and folks have talked about you know oh
418you know I was with us Park police and it was more Park related didn't deal with residents listen I enjoy people I love people I love working and engaging with people I love strategic thinkers but in in this space of Public Safety where we are challenged with limited resources the best thing we have are our officers and I will continue to support them in that space and if they're days where I have to get out there then I'll do the same thing to show them that the same work that they're doing I can do the same thing as well I know I'm not putting it out there that I'm going to do it but I can if I need to well I really appreciate that and I will Echo your gratitude to all of our
419hardworking officers who are doing extremely difficult and important jobs that our city relies on and depends upon every single day many times a personal sacrifice to themselves or the families um is that something that you measure in terms of where people are located within a district and if they're patrolling if they're actively driving versus walking versus biking I I don't actively measure that but I think at our district levels I mean obviously they have beat assignments they have PSAs public service areas patrol service areas that they have to patrol um and they are assigned on a daily basis um when they come to work um I'm sure our leadership team is is measuring that thank you yes ma'am um so hiring and retention I this has come up a lot today is clearly a if
420not the most important challenge facing the department right now in terms of making sure that it can be scaled up in the response that you're looking for to address the crime problems that we have um and also so that our officers aren't so overworked and doing a million hours of overtime um are there other method IES that you're thinking about employing I know you talked about the weekly recruiting efforts talked about hiring bonuses um but that have to do with either bringing folks back who are retired or additional lateral hiring efforts from our neighboring states or federal agencies um we do thank you for that question um we do offer lateral hires um we offer the $225,000 sign on bonus for for members uh for members um either from other agencies or anyone from other
421agencies that like to come work with us but I think the other thing thing for me also um council member Pinto is is how we retain our officers you know what one of the things that I that I'm optimistic about even in as I sit in this seat today to know that we still have folks who want to be police officers I mean to have a class um that is the highest number that we've seen in over a year lets me know that we're moving in the right direction of as an agency when you talk about um the officers who have the opportunity to retire right what we're finding is that this same time last year um those numbers have dwindled folks are staying right and then when we talk about officers who do retire
422and want to come back um and serve as um senior police officers in this time period that I've that I've been in this role we I've seen several officers who have who who we have issued them their retirement papers and come back to work for the Metropolitan Police Department even to a point where a gentleman said hey chief I'm retiring um at the end of this month which is September setember but I'd like to come back to work how do I go about doing that immediately let me send him an HR so we can make that happen but I I'm optimistic about the fact that there is a a positive um exchange when it comes to our recruitment efforts um which is why I I established the recruitment Outreach team so we can conduct in-person
423uh recruitment opportunities there are colleges and universities um that are here in the District of Columbia that are rich and thriving with folks who want who are in the criminal Justice programs who want to become members but we I I think there's an extra effort in that that we need to do and being imperson at some of these Career Fairs and um job job fairs across the district and maybe even sometime outside because if they uh what what I found is that there are folks in some of our recruit classes who come from New York City what an amazing opportunity for us and we of course we would like to hire from residents in the district of Colombia but I do recognize that in in in spaces and places where we are with our hiring
424efforts we also need to be open-minded and extend in Beyond the jurisdictional Lines absolutely well thank you so much and I'm happy to hear that phrase I feel like that's one of the themes of today of heading in the right direction um so really really appreciated Chief we are going to turn to colleagues for another round uh council member Henderson thank you chair person Pinto um Chief Smith I want to go back to talking a little bit about juveniles um in your testimony said um in sort of giving statistics about the youth curfew that 28 you had 28 youth violating curfew this past month and half went to DS um what happened to the other half uh we we can you hear me I was make sure this thing is on yes I can okay
425thank you for that so we typically would would would reconnect those young people with their families um we have a Youth and Family engagement Bureau where we have officers that are assigned there that their one of their specific tasks is about Community engagement family engagement and that and if we're able to connect those young people back to their families some of us some of our officers in that in that particular uh Bureau have have longstanding relationships with some of these families and so what they will typically do is take them back to their homes because they know them and they have a relationship with them okay so a young person going to the DRS Center was because you couldn't identify a family member to connect them with yes ma'am at immediately yes ma'am okay how
426did you all choose the locations um for the curfews we had a number of constituents who were reaching out concerned that there wasn't a a a site selected in Northeast but also kind of knowing how young people are if they know that you know the curfew isn't enforced in Chinatown then perhaps they will just move a few blocks to a different area how are we handling um those movements and I I think the initial um um intent was to find those areas where we've seen a significant increase of juveniles out during the curfew hours and I think that was the initial plan and and clearly we will re-evaluate that to determine if there are other areas across the district uh where we need to also um look at um um being strategic about um enforcing
427in those areas but right now I think we looked at those areas where we found that there was a significant increase of Youth that are out um during the curfew hours okay and I can appreciate the curfew hour piece obviously having a young person who is out uh 11:30 1 2 o'clock in the morning is not healthy for them nor for whatever activity that they might be engaging in but we know from um the mayor's crime Summit that she had a few months ago uh from the data that you all have is that the hours for which we have some of our um highest spikes and incidents are between 3:00 and 700 p.m. so how are you thinking about how we deploy officers in those immediate after school hours to some of these areas whether
428it be around Metro um uh around certain retail businesses um or in high areas where we have a number of different schools having children converge in one particular area so again obviously we'd have to look at um our staffing levels to ensure that we can also meet the needs of that but ALS but more importantly looking at some of the other District agencies to help support us in that area it's certainly um something that I have not at the moment um taken the opportunity to look at but it is something that I'm willing to do okay I I definitely welcome that conversation um I know that um you know the more that we hear about shootings involving teenagers happening at 3:00 in the afternoon or 4:00 in the afternoon these are after school hours typically
429taking place not inside a school building or on school property but if these are peak hours then um waiting to enforce curfews or other types of things until 11 o' like we're missing a key window here in terms of um that work I I also want to note you know in your um testimony you talked about the CCTV cameras being deployed to the areas and you stated that the ward council members will be notified of the locations by the district commanders um can you not forget us at large members as well as we also represent constituents in all of these words and oftentimes get questions um I think sometimes we get left out um my my apologies ma'am we will certainly uh council member will certainly do that and that was my apologies I'm still
430learning the whole DC government process no no it's okay it's not just you there's some folks who've been here for a very long time who do the exact same thing so it it's totally fine um let's let's talk about traffic safety um I have uh appreciated um the the work that you all have done over the summer to step up traffic enforcement has it has led to finding of other things um I think I was at ANC meeting in w 8 where um one of the officers who was presenting talked about how there was a stop um on Georgia Avenue and you know you all found uh essentially a machine gun like a Uzi um with um multiple magazines and also I mean in the car that you were able to confiscate that it wherever
431it was going in the city it did not make it is this something that you all plan to continue in terms of um uh engaging in tra traffic enforcement not just when it's um egregious egregious Behavior but as a part of regular practice it's AB absolutely I think what what we're finding is that um our uh traffic fatalities have increased and it's certainly very important for us to to educate the public on traffic safety laws um it's important for us to enforce those um rules and regulations of the road where we know that um um uh folks that are on the roadway are violating uh those those regulations but I think also to your point um council member is making sure that we have the opportunity to stop some of these guns that are going
432in places and spaces that we don't want them in the district and this is just enough the opportunity for us to do that and we will continue that effort um um throughout the foreseeable future okay great that's good to hear uh let's talk a little bit more about guns it feels like they are everywhere um when I have conversations with young people particularly high school students they'll say oh I know you know four or five people who have guns who are able to get it fairly regularly um and with with little with little work like with ease I know they're not walking into any store in the district and purchasing guns I know that they're coming from Maryland Virginia they're coming from West Virginia they're coming from as far as Georgia and other places um
433how do you plan to strengthen conversations not just with the other jurisdictions but with our federal Partners around gun violent gun violence prevention work we are we are in conversations if not weekly but bi-weekly with our federal Partners about gun trafficking um we we partnered very very extensively and very closely with the um ATF um we're also working with other law enforcement entities across the District of Colombia to really um collaboratively work on how we're going to address um as as members in law enforcement in the area um these gun trafficking issues um it's very refreshing to me uh when I when I am in this in when I've been since I've been in this space to hear uh the US Marshall uh reach out to us and say hey we want to help you
434with this work what can we do um and we're we're in conversations uh not just with um US Marshall um ATF DEA I even had IRS reach out to me last week to say we also want to help you in this effort and we we are around the table at 4:41 uh 4th Street which is where our office is located um working very diligently on future plans on how we're going to collaboratively address this issue I it's good to hear that we're working with our federal Partners on this um because I've said this before I feel like in terms of gun violence prevention it's not something that local governments can handle alone particularly in jurisdictions like ours where um there's such the freedom in flow between between um you could easily go from one jurisdiction
435to the other but also knowing that you know stronger gun laws na Nationwide can help this problem um that being who are wanting to see immediate action I recognize that some of this takes planning and takes time but are there things that we could be doing that by December 31st we see a demonstrable difference in terms of gun violence on our streets I I will say give us a little time you know I've been in the seat for two months and and I think we're moving as an agency in the right direction when it comes to to crime fighting when it comes the uh the collaborative relationships that we're we're strengthening because some of these relationships are already in place we're just strengthening those relationships uh with our federal local and state Partners I will
436ask you to just give us a little bit of time because this didn't happen um two months ago this has been ongoing uh for quite some time and I would also add that if and we've said this over and over and over again yes we are the public safety entity uh specifically when it comes to um addressing crime in the District of Columbia but we also need folks in these communities who know these things are happening to or know where guns are and folks with guns we we need them to really reach out to us and have those conversations with us anonymously uh we have the tip line that we often times talk about or they can just reach out to us directly based on um um many Avenues whether it's within our districts whether
437it's it's sending an email us but somehow or or or or some way I think what would be helped is to ensure that um as you talk about what can you say the advocacy of having folks share with us uh where some of these folks are bringing in some of the guns clearly we know everybody's not going to tell us that which means we have to do some of these other enforcement tactics or task force in order to drive down crime and we will do that but I'm I'm asking folks to just give us a little bit a little bit of time because we're working on that strategy I definitely hear you on that and I I appreciate the conversations that we've had uh Chief I find to find you to be an incredibly thoughtful
438leader um and of course in these times of Crisis we all want to see something happen immediately um we want to see action sort of moving towards that and so I I look forward to continuing to work with you as much as we can on on on some of these issues um thank you chair Pinto great thank you so much Council M Henderson counc member Parker acting Chief Smith there's been a lot of discussion today around Community engagement and establishing Partnerships there was plenty of testimony uh touting your ability to interface seamlessly with residents across the city connected to that can you just speak to how MPD under your leadership will continue the feedback loop with communities I know you're talked about your weekly walkthroughs um and I can attest that they are happening in
439W five I find that sometimes those feel like more question and answer sessions versus an opportunity to really hear from the community around their recommendations their thoughts and concerns uh and what they want to see change in their community so can you like what does that process look like for how you're going to continue to hear from Neighbors and inform your strategy and approach um thank you for that and um certainly appreciate your your response and feedback and also um your presence um during some of these um Public Safety walks but also some of the other meetings that I've showed up at I've also um um seen your presence there and it's been very very helpful um I think for me um we're already doing that right we're already in this space where we're establishing
440these relationships and we're building upon these relationships I think uh for me me more importantly is that as the leader of the organization last night um I'm I ex an an invitation was extended to all of thec chairs to meet with me um quite a few of them did show up um I think one of the other efforts and making sure that I am hearing and along with our um leadership team who was also present at the meeting last night um we can hear their recommendations to help us in this space um I've committed to meeting um with that group I'm not sure if it's going to be bonly or quarterly but um I I would like for our leadership team to take that the helm on that but I also think it's very important
441for them to be able to come together for us to come together and I sayc chairs because that was the group that reached out to me um and asked to meet with me individually but because there were so many it just made good practice to have them come together last night in one form so that I can share with them some of the things that I've shared I'm sharing with the uh um um committee on today and we will continue in that space I will also um I'm sure I have no doubt as I sit here because I think we have exceptional leaders um uh new commanders new assistant Chiefs and current Chiefs and assistant Chiefs in these spaces um I'm sure they will continue that same effort in that same vein that I am
442leading um as I meet with different community members whether they are individually or whether they are in clusters I appreciate that connected to that there have been a number of advisory groups stakeholder convenings that have been assembled that come up with recommendations so for instance the Juvenile Justice Advisory Group produced a report after their tenure um and to my knowledge those recommendations haven't been acted on the National Institute for criminal justice gun violence reduction strategic plan was produced and nothing really came out of it so I would just say you know and I and I know this is already on your radar as much as we can tap into the knowledge the insight and expertise of the broader Community because that is what we heard today overwhelmingly I think the better uh a similar question
443can you speak to how you're engaging with other jurisdictions other cities or even federal or state Partners to learn to share information uh it's been repeatedly mentioned that there are other cities that are seeing declines in violence while BC is going the other way what approach are you leading to make sure that we're constantly in communication with other jurisdictions well thank you for asking that um well one of the things I been in law enforcement for 25 years I have had the uh I want to say the fortunate opportunity to have mentors prior to my um um even Ascension through the ranks at us Park police who have been Chiefs of police of major cities who who mentored me um and so some of the strategies and approaches that you see comes from that development
444and that um that opportunity for them to be able to to demonstrate and to show me different um strategies around crime that they've had to deal with in their respective jurisdictions uh we also have opportunities where uh major City Chiefs um um International Association of chiefs of police um the National Organization for black law enforcement Executives um I'll even go as far as stand the Anti-Defamation League ADL where we ensure that our leadership team have exposure to either those networks to ensure that not just myself but also members of this organization have the opportunity to gain further knowledge around strategies and different crime fighting approach we recognize that there are some model um um organizations where all law enforcement leaders across the country come to in order for us to share ideas and strategies and
445that is how we are keeping up with industry standard law enforcement practices I recognize that um other agency other other cities where crime is is decreasing and and and we're seemingly increasing um um some of the things that um some of the other um States when it comes to various laws um they may not have had to deal with with respect to what we're dealing with here in the District of Columbia and I'm taking um several positive approach apprach es to ensure that um in some of their how they have led um their crime fight fighting strategies we are engaged in um utilizing some of those tactics here I appreciate that I have said and I'll say it again I really appreciate your responsiveness you came out to a public safety meeting and what I
446really appreciated was that you didn't just come you came with Solutions and those Solutions have actually produced results in the Brooklyn community and so I do have a question about the robbery suppression unit uh but before I go there I have fielded a number of complaints or uh um testimony from Neighbors in Brooklyn Manor and Carin Langston communities that have long dealt with violence um that that suggest that the city needs to do more can what is your plan strategy vision for getting your hands around the violence that's impacting all corners of the city but also specifically addressing communities that have long dealt with violence um and the trauma that comes from that uh I think i' I've I've um you know in my initial opening statement was really talking about a Citywide approach um
447really utilizing our violent crime suppression initiatives in addition to some of the other initiative that that I've spoken about today to really help um drive down crime in those areas um in my previous testimony here today day I shared with um U the council um and anyone that's watching that over the last 30 to 60 days crime is decreasing in in in in those areas to include Brooklyn when we have our crime briefings every Monday and Thursday it is refreshing um when Commander alteri briefs out and we see that crime is is being reduced significantly in those areas of Ward five where he has just really been struggling and I and I believe believe it's because the plan that he has uh is working uh the overall strategies and plans that we have in place
448uh to fight crime um in some of these high impact area areas are working but I also believe that um there is a a a different approach with how the community is um working with us um in a lot of those areas and I think what I want what I would like to do and I've said it before is to hold in that space because I see the numbers coming down um and I and and I think if we move too fast or pivot too soon we'll lose the momentum that we have right now and I think it's really important that uh we continue to drive these numbers down to decrease the footprint of crime in our area to really focus on um how we can take a Citywide approach to addressing crime which is
449what I talked about making sure that we're looking at intelligence Le um data uh specifically related to those high crime areas and making sure that we have the resources available um to support uh the efforts that we're making in that space there are neighbors that I will pass along that I think could benefit just hearing from you or uh the Brader MPD team in communities that have long dealt with violence um that just feel as though they want to see more um and I hear you loud and clear that we're making steps in the right direction in my last 30 seconds uh the robbery suppression unit uh at the time when you announced at that Brook Brooklyn Public Safety Meeting I think there were 20 plus robberies in that community that uh which is an
450anomaly and then that number dropped down to three what is next for the robbery suppression unit across the city how are you thinking about scaling it and deploying it to other areas that are hotpots um it's it's deployed Citywide it's not just specific to one area we again we utilize um the resources that we have and we continue to make sure that we're looking at the research and the data and different aspects across the across the district to redeploy or re reassign our resources um we will continue to do that um it's working I mean the numbers say it you said it yourself and I just want to maintain in that space again if there are opportunities for us to and we re-evaluate this every single Monday morning and every single Thursday morning we are
451re-evaluating how we reassign our resources across the city in specific high crime areas Cher Pinto if I could just have 60 more seconds sure go ahead uh acting Chief Smith I am not clear so this unit uh is there just one unit are there several units how many officers make up the unit and how Nimble is the reassignment across the city I I I won't address the numbers um because that's a part of our plan and I think that in order to um ensure the safety of what we're doing in this space I won't address the numbers um but the robbery suppression uh unit is something that was active before I I I was in this seat all we're doing is expanding it so that it's just not focused in one area which has been
452our nightlife task force but it's now expanded with our violent crime suppression division or unit um also in our arm carjacking task force working collaboratively in this effort across the District of columia to address those crimes and understood well I want to thank you for uh enduring today's hearing um and sharing candidly about your experiencing experience and vision I look forward to continuing to work together um and doing everything that I possibly can to help uh ensure that those numbers keep trending in the right direction uh thank you chair Pinto thank you very much council member Parker now I'm going to turn to council member fruman for a 10-minute round thank you very much chairperson Pinto I I don't know if I'm part of the light at the end of the tunnel or there will
453be another round but I'm I'm gonna treat council member Parker's one minute is coming out of mine and we'll try not to use all 10 of mine um appropriately there's been a lot of conversation about violent crime um homicides robberies and those are serious serious issues and I'm grateful for this the seriousness with which you're taking it and the approaches that you're using um property crime is also uh been up and up in lots of places and one category of it is the kind of brazin robbery brazin thefts from uh CVS's targets uh Littles I saw a video of of people essentially looting uh Littles uh leadle the other day what kinds of things are you doing H how can you address that and where is it coming from is it a spontaneous thing or
454do you think that there's an element of organization to it and how do how do you as a department get at this because the fact of it and the brazenness of it is really destructive to people's sense of safety and sense of order I I think thank you for that question sir and I think that when we have those issues specifically related to retail theft if I'm if I'm hearing you correctly um is certainly for us to um strategically look at those areas where this is happening and to make sure that we have the appropriate resources to address it um we have not seen a significant intake up increase um and when I say significant a significant increase of of um retail thefts um that is something that has been a part of my preliminary
455discussions um because I do recognize that it's happening um in many in several cities across the United States um um California Philadelphia and different places like that and so it is certainly um my intent to to to have further discussions uh with our leadership team um as well as some of our businesses and when I say I I mean members of the the leadership team the executive team to really um have discussions on them about their security specifically in their stores recognizing that we can't be there we can't be everywhere um at all times but also supporting them in their efforts to have security measures in their in their respective businesses and I think those conversations are already happening if I'm not mistaken I think that what we want to do is to make sure
456that there isn't a um and when I say we sitting down as the as a as a team looking at our our specific data and intelligence that we currently have to ensure that we don't find that we have an increase in retail um theft and if we find that pattern happening that we have the appropriate um level of support in order to address it have you have I get reports all of the time about a CVS where all the laundry detergent will be uh taken or and and uh and you heard the reports recently of the giant in w 8 I believe and concern about losing a grocery store uh in a you know a place where it would be it's critical to have one the you're are you I I've heard in so many
457different ways that this is a significant problem that's touching lots of stores around the city you're you don't you don't see that as the case and so I guess when I when I heard you initially I I I'm I'm looking at these really large mob retail um thefts um I will say oh absolutely if if it's if it's what you're talking about with CVS and giant um um I met along with members of our um sixth district um and Seventh District met with um the leadership team at Giant um and sat down with them and made some proposals to them with regards to how to safeguard um some of the merchandise that's in giant right um they were um initially and they are I think they have going to roll out a plan where they
458were going to they were so dissatisfied with the um retail theft that they were going to be doing um receipt checks um as folks were exiting um the store and what I wanted to do is to make sure that we MPD had the opportunity to sit down with them and come up with a really good plan in that space and we did um some of these um establishments have their own um security elements or security guards in those spaces um and we have and been very intentional about making sure that we have the opportunity to look at their security plan look at how they uh uh reassess or reassign their resources in those particular places I I took a walk in giant myself and uh I've been there several times Incognito sometimes but I've been
459there several times and I found that it was very important for us before they launched that particular effort that they sat down with the subject matter experts in that space in order to come up with a good plan and so far I have not heard any um significant issues in that space again I think um what's really important for us to do as a law enforcement agency um is to work with some of the establishments to ensure that they have good protocols in place in order to um um deal with some of the things that are happening within their respective stores like CVS usually when you go into CVS there is a security guard there either at the front door I've gone into several uh we just need to be able to help them with
460their plan or system so earlier one of the council members talked about you know that they don't think a 12-year-old is organizing a carjacking ring um where there are these mobs and I agree with that um the where there are these mobs that are going into these stores do you think that those are organized in some way as you guys as the department has looked at these crimes happening in different places do you see some sort of a pattern is there something that's anticipatable about the way that the goods will eventually be distributed or do you think that it's more Spence I think it's real sporadic I mean it's not a we're not seeing like um significant amounts of merchandise at one time being taken from a store like a mob mentality I mean there
461there were some concerns earlier during the summer um along the UST Street Corridor and I think we eradicated that by by how we um reassigned our resources in that area um not just Metropolitan Police Department but other multi- agency it was a multi- agency approach in that space um and so what I don't see is what we're seeing across the other areas um in the in the us but we are certainly um intentional about making sure that we we have a plan in place and specifically that means that we need to have discussion with some of the businesses in those areas this does go to you resources and deployment and I know that there are a couple of different business districts in w three where you there's really a hunger to have a presence of
462an officer uh during key times of day to try to protect against these kinds of things um a different place where you hear that and it's not in w three um and I imagine others got the letter that I got um from the leader of uh the Clyde's group is is Chinatown and a sense that the level of disorder in Chinatown is really a challenge to a kind of beating part of the economy of the city and I wonder how you're seeing Chinatown in those issues and whether there are active steps that you're taking that would address the kind of thing that we were that I was hearing about from the leader of Clyde's well well first of all I I certainly don't have an issue with addressing that we have taken a multi- agency
463approach um I I think during my previous testimony today I talked about impact which is a multi- agency um multi- agency and community policing together approach um especially in the um the Gallery Place in t Chinatown area um we have our officers in that space I was down there myself um Sunday U took a walk down down to Gallery Place in Chinatown you know just to see what's happening in that space it was very very um we didn't have a lot of um um activity if you will um we had a preseason um hockey game um that was taking place at Capital One Arena so I took the time to go down there and walk around in that area um and and there were times before before we created this initiative um uh the multi-
464agency approach um where there were lots of folks just standing around in that area and and and again you know I think that as an agency we have located or determined where their areas where we really need to go in there and address um some of the nuisance Behavior whether it's an we consider it other people consider it to be an open air uh open air drug Market or whether there's a lot of um uh nuisance Behavior that's taking place in that space we've partnered with Metro Transit um US Park police um as well as members of our organization obviously to really address some of the activity that's been going on in that area and I've seen a a decrease in that area myself um I've talked to um one or two of the business
465folks in that area and they've also supported the fact that there has been a decrease of that activity um in that space I'm very glad to hear that and thank you very much for your testimony thank you very much for your service yes sir thank you for your time thank you so much council member fruman and I'm really glad that you brought up some of the issues around retail theft whether it's individual or organized and some of the issues we've been seeing in our business corridors and the committee intends to hold a round table um on organized retail theft to bring together the law enforcement component the business interest component residents and other interests to uh better tackle this issue and as you know Council from I believe you co-introduced it uh although I have
466to double check as part of the secure DC package that we rolled out last week um includes this provision for additional Public Safety grants for our commercial corridors that will be run out of the deputy mayor for Public Safety and Justice's office um to help supplement a lot of the work that the chief is talking about so that our commercial corridors can have the support they need so thank you so much for raising those issues say I'm a co- introduce wonderful thank you all right I will now turn to our atlarge colleague council member Anita bonds who is also a member of this committee thank you very much um Madam chair and um my apologies again for getting here so very late I did have another assignment for in fact most of the day but
467I did want to um appear before our chief and I say appear before our chief because I wanted the chief to know that um this confirmation is very very important to our community you know that you've heard from many in the community and you've certainly heard from many today and I wanted to just sort of start with if if you would um talk to us about your impressions you've been on the job acting Chief and in that in that Arena as acting Chief what are your impressions for instance when that you get from the general Community just thinking collectively about the community of Washington DC and then um if you would um if there are some differences that you not it with the from the general community and the high impact crime neighborhoods just help
468us to understand that okay well thank you for that and thank you for being here and and I certainly appreciate you for all the the times that we've been in the same space and place um I appreciate your support and those efforts um so what what I've heard from the residents um of the District of Colombia and and of the communities let me say communities because that encompasses our businesses and and and so forth um is that they want to see the police right they want want they want a presence in the spaces and places where people reside where people um have the opportunity to um to to recreate if you will um and my expectation is that um I would like I want the police in my community as well right where I live
469and where I reside and I think that there's a mutual understanding in that space which is why um I've taken some of the efforts that I've taken to ensure that there is a presence um one of the things that I've heard you know quite frequently prior to um serving as the acting Chief is that you know a lot of our officers they show up and they're in cars and they don't get out and all the other stuff and they're not engaging and interacting with the communities um and so it's been it's been my effort to not just um share with the membership that that's what I want them to do but also um lead in that category as well and to be present out in the field as often as I can uh to demonstrate
470that um some of the challenges I will tell you um with when we talk about members of the community and and and being in their spaces and places um you know it's they want us there but then some places they don't want us there right and and it's been very int I've gotten out of the car and walked in different places um in certain areas and they were just like you know get back in your car and go home right um and I'm the chief with four stars and it's okay and I keep walking because at the end of the day when something happens people are going to call us and we cannot be in a space or a place where we're only responding to a place that we're unfamiliar with as opposed to having
471some familiarity in that space already and knowing what we're going to have to deal with when we get there which is why it's very very important to me that we have these Public Safety walks and that we hear from the community and that they provide for us what their recommendations might be in order to um drive down some of the violent crime that's taking place um in their areas um I've oftentimes heard uh folks talk about they would like for our officers to live in their communities right live in their their areas um that they live uh I didn't I did not mention this today and and and and it was may have been just an oversight but but um I agree you know I I think that having a police car um in some
472of these areas are certainly a deterrence and one of the things that that I have um initiated um is adding more cars to our take-home program for officers who reside in the district of Colombia um it's certainly a great tool and a measure for us to deter and interfere and interrupt um and um um crime in certain areas and and I want to continue to build upon that with the support of the mayor all right and so I'm I will therefore assume and I thank you for that response because that's important to where we are as a community but I'm assuming that um neighborhoods I call them neighborhoods of strife I think you call them high impact crime areas that would be more of the areas that would say go home chief or go home
473U four stars or something to that effect am I correct okay correct okay want to make sure you've already talked a little bit about the business Community um my colleagues had questions and you've answered some of those those and and I uh appreciate hearing that um do you hear a different kind of message um or do you have a different impression of our seniors of our youth um talk a little bit about that this is really kind of important to me to understand where you are this you know and that's important to me and it's interesting because I I I shared with um a couple of community community members in different spaces and places about how how important two groups are to me Youth and seniors right and um you know because my grandmother was
474a senior right and so that's really important to me that that we protect our seniors in some of these spaces and when I've um heard and I've I've I've read reports where our seniors have been you know attacked very aggressively in that space it's very concerning for me um and so what I want to also be able to do is to build upon that relationship I have not yet had the opportunity to get in front of our seniors um I'm waiting for that opportunity whether it's at a community center or some other area um and if you can help me help support me in that space and getting me in front of our seniors because I want to hear from them and I I want to hear their concerns and then with that information be
475able to um provide um a response from our respective um leaders within that within that District so if you're able to to help me in that space I'm more than willing to tackle that most definitely yes ma'am yes um and with the let me let me talk a little bit about the um have you had conversations or what's your impression of our returning citizens our offenders returning into Community what's your impression of that and have you had conversations with them um and have you had conversations with some of those who are the accused um so I've had conversations with both and and the some of the returning citizens I mean I've I've been approached on the street in different places um I I've also been approached by returning citizens who are really instrumental and Building
476Bridges within the communities that they're returning to um creating programs helping some helping helping the communities dispel um some of these outstanding um outstanding historical beefs or or or activities that have been going on I I've been intentional about having conversations with some of them and they've been having conversations with me because it's re I really think it's important that when folks are returning to their communities and they really want to make a change that's a positive impact to us um from a public safety perspective especially if they're intentional about doing that and there have been a couple of folks since I've been in this space who have continuously reached out to me provided information with to me shared with me what they're doing in the communities and I think that's a positive thing and
477I think we need to continue to when we have opportunities uh for those individuals who are um engaged in their restorative programs in their communities we need to support that okay well I mean I have a couple of other groups but um I think you pretty much talked a great length about um your strategies as it relates to what we can anticipate the department doing into the future I just have a minute and I recognize that I'm not going to talk to you about guns because we don't make guns in DC yes unless they're you know plastic and what have you but um I I know that's something that we we really we we really can't contain Congress says we can't contain it and there we go so we're up against it but as you
478think about the District of Colombia and what we can do what is the immediate additional thing that you think the department that you can get done let's say in the next 90 days that will make a big difference I mean I know I'm putting you absolutely on the spot and that's where you should be you're on the spot I mean this is a big important job and we we want it to be done right I think and and is wait before I say it uh council member Pento and this might be a little far stretched is this my last you're responding to me okay yeah yeah she she'll have her question so I think that uh to support some of the legislation um that that's being introduced to support law enforcement and the strategies um
479that we are proposing uh specifically related to how we can address violent crime some of these um and when I say address violent crimes the initiatives that we um council member Pinto um has has um is is pushing the mayor is pushing from a public safety perspective that's going to help us that's going to help build morale across the workforce it's going to help us um strengthen I'll say the relationships that we have um across um the District of Colombia if we could have the support of the council as she introduces new legislation to support Public Safety um in the the District of Columbia I appreciate that and I know I'm over my time but may I just have one one more question you talked a minute ago about um security officers and I know
480some carry weapons some do not what is your thought about how that group of individuals can be better organized so that we as a community get more bang for the buck and that they feel that the job and the work that they do is so important to Bringing about Public Safety in the community well I think we we are probably um um in in collaboration with a lot of the um security companies um within the respective districts and and I think what we what we have been doing and will continue to do is talk to them about their plans because that's not that not only I think increases um the the relationship that we have with some of those security um contracts or security officers but it also gives them a a space or place
481where they can reach out and and if they're if they're if they are not developing strategies within a particular establishment um in in in a way where it's going to deter or or impact crime in a positive way um then they have the Metropolitan Police Department there to support them in their efforts and that is the approach that I would take I appreciate that there are more questions about how to use this body of individuals but um I'm going to put here and you'll see it in writing and you can reflect on it then but thank you thank you very much dear woman thank you so much council member bonds for being here in those questions and we certainly continue the conversation and continue the partnership um I want to thank you so much acting
482Chief Smith for being here today for your leadership of the department for the last several months I think we heard so many great ideas um today from our public Witnesses from you I'm glad you had an opportunity to speak with a number of our colleagues as well um and I'm really inspired by a lot of the experiences that you've been able to draw upon not only from your own personal experience but also your professional experience inside Metropolitan Police Department working with the district but also outside of the district and bringing some of those new strategies to light we are in a crisis and I think it is going to require some new strategies to bolster what is already working um and so I appreciate your vision and laying that out for us today um I
483also want to thank um everyone at the Metropolitan Police Department I talked earlier about how grateful I am and my team is and the district government is uh for all of the work of our officers who are doing this hard work every single day and putting their lives on the line and making many personal sacrifices their families are making sacrifices but also of the entire team at the Metropolitan Police Department and your front office um has been just so excellent to work with um and so professional and responsive um and thank you especially to Kelly and Ben um for all of your efforts and in making sure we can keep moving forward um I want to thank my team as well um for on the Judiciary Committee for working so hard and around the clock
484to to keep moving forward um on these important issues and lastly to to everybody else who is here today either testifying or watching or just in the public want you to know we hear you um we are in a state of emergency we are not going to stop working towards this this committee is not interested in finger pointing or interested in Solutions and collaboration and I know that's your view and and how you've been to date and I really appreciate that and we're going to be in lock step moving forward um I really really appreciate someone testified earlier saying if anyone's interested in peace we want to work together and I I really love that um phraseology and I think that that is a good reminder all of us in government all of us in
485community Faith leaders School leaders neighbors we're all in this together um really appreciate you being here your vision um and with that the time is now 6:33 p.m. on the same day that we started we are adjourned thank you [Music] recording stopped e for