And with all of the violence in the district,
we will certainly be a top prioy
for DC's new police chief.
And if approved by the City Cou,
Pamela Smith, who you see here,
will be the next person
to fill that position.
And the chief, let's go ahead and call
it The chief joins us in studio to talk
more about this historic nominan
and her plans for the departmen.
It is so good to meet you.
Thank you so much for spending
some time with us this
morning. Thank you for having me here
this morning. I really appreciate it.
So I want to get to this moment.
First, before we talk about
the business of the district,
you you would be the second wom,
the first African American woman
to be elevated to this position.
I'm sure that has not lost on y.
What are your feelings
when you think about that?
It it's very humbling.
You know, when I was the chief
of police of the US Park Police,
I was the first African American chief of
police in the agency's 230 year history.
At that time, and to be
able to do this amazing,
have this amazing opportunity extended to
me by Mayor Muriel Bowser is very humbling.
And I'm so grateful and what it what what,
although it's not lost on me,
what I hope is that I'm not the last.
I think this is an opportunity
for young men and young women to
really see how they can aspire.
To be anything that they choose to be.
Because sitting here looking at,
you might not think about some d
say humble beginnings in Arkanss
and and now to where you are,
surely that must mean there is
no ceiling to the possibilities
that that is absolutely correct.
Humble beginnings is certainly t
it is was for me in Pine Bluff,
AR lots of challenges some turm.
But what I did was I used
those moments of adversity.
And turn them into something positive.
I utilize some of the resourcese
the summer youth employment prom
that was available to me in Pine Bluff,
AR and meeting a pastor and his
wife who who thought enough of l
say the little old girl from Pie
Bluff AR to really groom me into
the young woman that I am today.
And
as you sit here today and we talked about.
This what seems to be a surge
in violence in the district.
We're talking a lot about gun violence,
we're talking carjackings and we
talking youth involved overwhelmingly
when we report these crimes.
What's the strategy here?
How do you plan to attack
this? So I think the most import
thing for me is seriously to leverage
the professionals that we currently have
at the Metropolitan Police Department.
I think they are doing a fantastic job
with coming up with different strategies
and ideas in order to combat cr.
But that's just one entity of i.
What we need to do is really
engage our community,
engage the members of the commu,
both as residents of businesses.
And what I want to be able
to do is to hear from them.
I want to hear their voices.
I want to understand what
it what their concerns are.
I'm sure their concerns are proy
just the same as mine because
I am a a resident of Ward 8 and
it troubles me as well.
And I think that there has to be
an allgovernment approach in orr
for us to really deal with the
crime that's occurring right no.
We have some amazing relationshs
with our federal,
local and state partners and wee
going to continue to build up on
those relationships to to to sut
us in this space of crime fightg
we asked viewers to you know.
Send in your concerns and your questions.
And not surprisingly,
one viewer named Renee, good morning to you.
Thank you for submitting this a.
Would there be maybe stiffer consequences
for young people and parents,
young people involved in these
violent crimes? And also,
what about a curfew when school starts?
What do you say to that?
Well, I think what I would
say is that we want to
look at preventive methods, rig,
Preventive methods because we dt
want all of our our young people to end
up into the juvenile justice sy.
I think that when I look at what
we're doing in the Metropolitan.
Police Department with community engagement
with our youth and family and family Bureau,
there are moments for us to reay
connect with our young people.
Our officers are some of our officers
are still in schools located ard
the District of Columbia and gig
us the opportunity to really wok
with them and work with the par.
We recognize sometimes that that
young people can be challenging,
but I know that here in the
District of Columbia,
the Mayor's office offers opportunities
and resources for parents who me
having challenges with their yo.
And people.
And we want to hear from them.
We want to partner with you
to help your child become an
effective person in society.
That's acting chief of MPD Pamela Smith.
Thank you so much. I look forwad
to speaking with you again.
Don't be a stranger.
Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much for having me.