Acting D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith, whose nomination to become permanent chief is pending before the D.C. Council, said she is committed to providing “fair and equal treatment” for all the city’s diverse communities, including the LGBTQ community, in her role as the city’s chief law enforcement officer.

In an Aug. 9 interview with the Washington Blade, Smith responded to questions raised by some in the LGBTQ community about whether due to her background as an ordained minister she may have biased views toward LGBTQ people based on her religious beliefs.

“Thank you for that question, and I certainly welcome any questions that members of any community may have with respect to my faith,” Smith told the Blade. “What I will tell you is I’ve been in law enforcement for 25 years. And I’ve always and will continue to provide fair and equal treatment to anyone who is subjected to any kind of threat or crime,” Smith said.

“And since we’re specifically speaking about the LGBTQ community, that translates to the LGBTQ community as well,” she said. “And my faith has nothing to do with me treating anyone differently,” she added.

“I served when I came into the Metropolitan Police Department as the Chief Equity Officer,” she said. “And my role was certainly about fair and equitable treatment for every employee of the Metropolitan Police Department,” said Smith. “And for me, that transfers to the members of our community – our businesses, our visitors, our tourists here in the District of Columbia.”

Asked whether that policy would apply to members of the LGBTQ community as well, Smith replied: “Absolutely. Listen, we have many members from the LGBTQ community here in MPD, including a transgender sworn member currently up to the rank of a lieutenant.”

Smith added, “We also have LGBTQ members in the reserve and volunteer corps supporting many functions in the department, including support of the LGBTQ Liaison Unit. We have a nationally recognized LGBTQ Liaison Unit.”

According to Smith, that unit, listed on the MPD website as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Liaison Unit (LGBTLU), provides services to crime victims, outreach to community meetings, and “training and support to the rest of the department as well as the community.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on July 17 nominated Smith to become the city’s next police chief. At the time her nomination was announced Smith was serving as an assistant chief. A short time later, the mayor named her acting chief while her nomination was pending before the D.C. Council, which is expected to approve the nomination when the Council returns from its summer recess.

If her nomination is approved by the Council, Smith would make history by becoming the first African-American woman to serve as the permanent D.C. police chief since the department was founded in 1861.

Smith joined the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department in May 2022 after having served as Chief of Police for the United States Park Police in the nation’s capital. Her more than 20 years of service with the Park Police included assignments at Park Police offices in New York, Atlanta, and San Francisco.

Among the topics the Blade raised with Smith during her interview was concern raised by some LGBTQ activists and other community activists that the shortfall of police officers that the department is currently facing has prevented the department from replacing members of the community liaison units, including the LGBT Liaison Unit, when members of those units retire or take other jobs.

Smith said she is committed to retaining the liaison units and doing all she can to keep them fully staffed.

“While we have no officers who have been reassigned away from those units, we do realize that attrition takes a toll on any area of the organization,” she told the Blade. “And what I want you to know is the Special Liaison Branch, which includes the teams servicing the LGBTQ plus community as well as our immigrant, our interfaith, deaf and hard of hearing communities – they play an important role in servicing and connecting with our diverse community,” Smith said.

“And this is especially true now as D.C. prepares to host World Pride in 2025,” she said, referring to D.C. having been selected to host the 2025 international LGBTQ Pride event, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors from throughout the world.

“And so, what I have done as an initial step within the last couple of weeks is that I’ve approved four vacancies to be filled in the Special Liaison Branch,” Smith said. “And two of those vacancies will be for our LGBTQ unit.”

The Blade also asked Smith how she plans to address the issue of hate crimes at a time when D.C. police crime statistics show that over the past 10 years, the largest number of reported hate crimes in the city are those that have targeted LGBTQ people as victims.

“What I can say is in the department, we certainly have strong policies and training to make sure members can recognize hate crimes,” Smith said. “And officers have to report whether there are any indicators of a possible hate crime whenever they’re investigating or engaged in a case,” she added. “We have a multidisciplinary team that works together on reported hate crimes.”

The Blade asked Smith for her thoughts on calls by some community activists, including LGBTQ activists, for the decriminalization of prostitution involving consenting adults and for the police to de-prioritize making prostitution-related arrests for consenting adults.

“Well, I think our position today and our position has always been that we continue to enforce the laws of the District of Columbia,” she said, adding that in the past several years D.C. police have focused more on targeting sex worker customers or “Johns” in making prostitution-related arrests.

Smith said she was not familiar with the specifics of the D.C. police investigation into the unexplained death of D.C. gay resident Ernest Terrell Newkirk, 55, whose body was found May 28 on a Southeast D.C. street several hours after he attended an LGBTQ Black Pride dance party at a Capitol Hill gay bar. His partner of 21 years, Roger Turpin, said Newkirk’s wallet, phone, jewelry, and car were all missing at the time he was found.

Turpin has expressed concern that the detective initially assigned to the case declined to look for fingerprints on Newkirk’s car that was found two days later and was not interested in tracking down calls made by someone on Newkirk’s phone shortly after his body was found.
D.C. Police have said they have ruled out a homicide in the case because there were no signs of injuries on Newkirk’s body, but the cause of death has yet to be determined due to delays in chemical toxicology tests by the Office of the D.C. Chief Medical Examiner. A police spokesperson said the case remains under investigation.

Turpin said a new detective was assigned to the case and he is hopeful that police would aggressively investigate the case.

“What I can do is see if I can obtain some additional information from our investigators on this side,” Smith told the Blade. She said she knows from personal observation that MPD detectives “work very aggressively” on the cases to which they are assigned.

Asked if she has any message for the LGBTQ community in her role as Acting Chief of Police and in anticipation of her confirmation as permanent chief, Smith had this to say:

“Well, I can say personally the LGBTQ plus community will see me. They will see me out and about,” she added. “They will probably see me in spaces and places that they’re probably not familiar with seeing me in,” she said.

“And I plan to be very supportive. And if there’s anything that I can do to be of support to the LGBTQ community just as I would any other community, I would add, don’t hesitate to reach out,” she said. “If there’s anything I can learn new about various communities or different communities I’m open to that as well.”

A transcript of the full interview follows:

Acting D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith
Interview with Lou Chibbaro Jr.
August 9, 2023

Washington Blade: People in the LGBTQ community who are familiar with your record with the D.C. police and the U.S. Park Service have had good things to say about you. But some in the LGBTQ community may be interested in knowing whether your role as an ordained minister might have some impact on how you address LGBTQ-related issues. Historically, some clergy have not been supportive of LGBTQ people and even have opposed legislation to protect the rights of LGBTQ people. Might you have a message for those who may be curious about your role as a police chief and a clergy person?

Pamela Smith: So, what I can say, and thank you for the question. And I certainly welcome any questions that members of any community may have with respect to my faith. What I will tell you is I’ve been in law enforcement for 25 years. And I’ve always and will continue to provide fair and equal treatment to anyone who is subjected to any kind of threat or crime.

And I will always ensure that I provide fair and equal treatment to the members of the Metropolitan Police Department and the residents and the citizens that are visiting the District of Columbia. And my faith has nothing to do with me treating anyone differently. I served when I came into the Metropolitan Police Department as the Chief Equity Officer. And my role was certainly about fair and equitable treatment for every employee of the Metropolitan Police Department.

And for me that transfers to the members of our community – our businesses, our visitors, our tourists here in the District of Columbia.

Blade: Can we assume that would apply to members of the LGBTQ community as well?
Smith: Absolutely. Listen, we have many members from the LGBTQ community here in MPD, including a transgender sworn member currently up to the rank of a lieutenant. We also have LGBTQ members in the reserve and volunteer corps supporting many functions in the department, including support of the LGBTQ Liaison Unit. We have a nationally recognized LGBTQ Liaison Unit. They serve our community. They provide services to victims, regular outreach to meetings. And they provide training and support to the rest of the department as well as the community.

So, I state that I support and will always provide fair and equal treatment to all people. And since we’re specifically speaking about the LGBTQ community, that translates to the LGBTQ community as well.

Blade: Regarding your mention of the LGBTQ Liaison Unit, we have heard that due to the shortage of police officers on the force, the number of officers assigned to the liaison units, including the LGBTQ Liaison Unit, have declined, in some cases due to attrition. Can you comment on whether there is a problem in keeping the liaison units sufficiently staffed?

Smith: I don’t think there is a problem in keeping up the liaison units. I think we have to be honest and talk about the fact that we have low staffing numbers across the department. Certainly, we have many challenges as we make decisions on how we reposition some of our employees. And we will continue to do that throughout the years.

While we have no officers who have been reassigned away from those units, we do realize that attrition takes a toll on any area of the organization. And what I want you to know is the Special Liaison Branch, which includes the team servicing the LGBTQ+ community as well as our immigrant, our interfaith, deaf and hard of hearing communities – they play an important role in servicing and connecting with our diverse community.

And this is especially true now as D.C. prepares to host World Pride in 2025. And so, what I have done as an initial step within the last couple of weeks is that I’ve approved four vacancies to be filled in the Special Liaison Branch. And two of those vacancies will be for our LGBTQ unit.

Blade: The last we had heard was there were just three officers assigned to the LGBT Liaison Unit as of earlier this year.

Smith: Well, it’s important to me. I think I said to you as I think about enhancing numbers in some of our positions as we gain new employees across the police department, I recognize the importance of our Special Liaison Branch and the members of the team that provide a service to our community. It’s certainly important to me that we not only fill vacancies in other areas across the workforce, but I am also committed to doing the same thing with our Special Liaison Branch to include our LGBT community liaison unit.

Blade: Concerning the issue of hate crimes, the MPD data over the past 10 years shows that the largest number of reported hate crimes in D.C. are those that target members of the LGBTQ community. Is there anything you can say about the department’s efforts to address hate crimes?

Smith: What I can say is in the department, we certainly have strong policies and training to make sure members can recognize potential hate crimes, for all crimes. And officers have to report whether there are any indicators of a possible hate crime whenever they’re investigating or engaged in a case. We have a multidisciplinary team that works together on reported hate crimes.

And that also includes the Special Liaison Branch, which shares information from the community with the team and information on investigations within the community. As appropriate, we have a Criminal Investigation Division, which investigates all hate crimes. And then we have intelligence. And what we do with intelligence is that we share information that the department becomes aware of with the other two branches, such as our Criminal Investigation Division and our Special Liaison Branch.

We also coordinate with our federal partners, including the prosecutors, the FBI, the U.S. Park Police, as well as other law enforcement agencies across the District of Columbia. We also have great relationships with our colleges and universities – our college campuses, rather, to ensure that information is shared and any available resources that we might have, or they might have, that we can leverage those resources.

And I’m sure, as you know, it’s difficult sometimes for the police to address hate and bias in the community, which is why we partner with people and entities that can mean stronger messages such as with Rev. [Thomas] Bowen, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Religious Affairs, and other faith leaders. We focus on preventing crime generally by responding to investigate hate crimes that happen and working with the community.

So, similarly like domestic violence or sexual assaults, we are concerned and making sure we encourage reporting of these types of events to ensure that we can drive these numbers down.

Blade: We have observed that in a number of cases the U.S. Attorney’s office drops the designation of a hate crime that D.C. police have sent to them after an arrest is made. Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s office have said sometimes there is insufficient evidence for them to obtain a conviction by a jury on a hate crimes case. Is MPD doing all it can to make sure the evidence for hate crimes cases is sufficient?

Smith: Absolutely. And I think that goes to what I said earlier, just making sure we continue to train our employees, our officers, our members to recognize potential hate crimes and making sure we’re providing the U.S. Attorneyi’s office with the appropriate evidence and documentation that’s needed to prosecute these cases.

Blade: Some in the LGBTQ community have joined advocates for sex workers in asking whether D.C. police should be devoting their resources, at a time when violent crime is rising, to arresting sex workers, including transgender women who sometimes are forced to engage in survival sex work because they can’t find other employment. We hear that arrests of transgender sex workers have occurred in recent years in an area along Eastern Avenue near the Maryland line, but that MPD may be changing its policy this year by not making as many of those arrests when the parties involved are consenting adults. What can you say about that?

Smith: Well, I would definitely never say that we’re not focused on all aspects of crimes throughout the District of Columbia and that the officers are less concerned and there’s less of an interest in making sure we are addressing all crimes. In the department, we work very closely with many of our community partners such as HIPS to try and address community concerns. And to make sure that individuals engaged in survival sex work have other options.

At MPD we have made five arrests this year, all of which were of Johns, not sex workers. I think we conducted an operation within our Sixth District. And that includes one of the areas that you spoke about, Eastern Avenue… We’ve made like five arrests this year. And what I will say is between the years of 2018 and 2023, as late as August 6, which is a couple of days ago, we’ve arrested over 2,150 Johns related to prostitution.

Blade: Again, some in the LGBTQ community as well as in the community at large there has been talk of decriminalizing sex work only between consenting adults and deemphasizing arrests involving consenting adults. No one is condoning the sex trafficking of minors. Does that put MPD in a difficult position since you’ve said you must enforce the law?

Smith: Well, I think our position today and our position has always been that we continue to enforce the laws of the District of Columbia.

Blade: On another matter, the partner of a D.C. gay man whose body was found on a street in Southeast D.C. — on 46th Place, S.E. — the day after he attended an LGBTQ Black Pride event at a bar on Capitol Hill over Memorial Day weekend has raised concerns that police are not sufficiently investigating this case. The partner says the man’s wallet, phone, and car were all missing before the car was found a few days later in another location. He says the detective at the time was not interested in looking for fingerprints inside the car when it was found or in tracking down phone calls made on the partner’s phone in an incident, he thinks, was a carjacking. Paris Lewbel, the MPD spokesperson, has said the case is still under investigation. Is this something you are aware of and which you might comment on?

Smith: Well, I am not familiar with the particulars of this case or investigation. But, in spaces where I’m not familiar with it and also if it’s still under investigation based as Paris has shared with you, that would be my position as well. What I can do is see if I can obtain some additional information from our investigators on this side.

What I will say and will say this outwardly is that our detectives work very aggressively. I’ve seen them since I’ve been here – I’ve been with the Metropolitan Police Department now for almost 16 months. And I have seen them workday in and day out. As a matter of fact, I’m often concerned about their emotional well-being because they are always in the office, always working.

They take these cases very personally. And I know they would do their due diligence if there was any foul play or anything that may have been associated with this case or any particular case. I’ve seen them really work hard. And I don’t think in this particular case it would be any different.

Blade: The partner did tell us yesterday that another detective contacted him. He thinks it might have been after the Washington Blade story ran on this case. He said the detective told him they are continuing to work on the case.

Smith: Excellent – that’s good to hear.

Blade: Is there anything else you may wish to say that the LGBTQ community might want to know regarding your plans for the MPD?

Smith: Well, I can say personally the LGBTQ+ community will see me. They will see me out and about. They will probably see me in spaces and places that they’re probably not familiar with seeing me in. And I plan to be very supportive. And if there’s anything that I can do to be of support to the LGBTQ community just as I would with any other community, I would add don’t hesitate to reach out. If there’s anything I can learn new about various communities or different communities I’m open to that as well.

Blade: Thank you very much, chief, for this interview.