D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser named Executive Assistant Chief Jeffery Carroll on Wednesday as the interim leader of the Metropolitan Police Department, ahead of Chief Pamela A. Smith’s resignation at the end of the month.
The Democratic mayor said she chose Chief Carroll, who served as the department’s second-in-command before the announcement, because he met her main qualification of having a no-nonsense attitude toward violence and disorder.
“I always look for, in a chief, a crime fighter,” Ms. Bowser said. “Some people are philosophers, or some people are this, or they’re that, but I want somebody who is focused on driving down crime.”
Ms. Bowser has 180 days to formally nominate Chief Carroll to the D.C. Council for final approval. With the mayor announcing last month that she will not seek a fourth term, there’s a chance Chief Carroll will hold the job for only a year.
Despite his interim status and uncertainty about the District’s next mayor, Chief Carroll said he’s treating the position as if it’s permanent.
“My goal is to move the department forward,” Chief Carroll said. “To make sure we’re keeping the residents safe [and] to make sure we’re meeting all the goals and expectations of the community.”
Chief Carroll, who spent the first half of his 23-year career patrolling the city before he was elevated into more specialized roles, takes over Metropolitan Police as it faces scrutiny from Capitol Hill.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee released a report accusing Chief Smith of bullying her command staff into altering crime statistics so the city would appear safer than it is.
Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican and committee chairman, called on Chief Smith to resign immediately after the report went public this weekend.
But Ms. Bowser shot back at the findings in her own letter, saying the Oversight Committee’s critiques reeked of bias and had little evidence to back their claims.
Chief Carroll said he wants to wait until the House puts out its final report before making any department-wide changes, but said stronger internal quality control could be on the horizon.
“Something we’re looking at is the development of a dedicated auditing team to look at all the reports on the back end to make sure that reports … are appropriately classified,” the interim chief said.
Allegations of fudged crime numbers helped inspire President Trump to launch his summertime crime crackdown in the District. The operation involved federal agents hitting the streets and a deployment of more than 2,000 National Guard troops to the nation’s capital.
D.C. leaders frequently said the federal surge was unnecessary because violent crime was at a 30-year low, just two years after the city went through a generational spike in killings and carjackings.
But Mr. Trump often cited reports of police Cmdr. Michael Pulliam’s suspension on accusations that he was downgrading crimes recorded by officers.
Ms. Bowser said an upcoming Inspector General’s report on those allegations will help police brass determine Cmdr. Pulliam’s future with the MPD.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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