Jeffery Carroll will be Washington, D.C.’s interim Metropolitan Police Department chief, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Wednesday.
Carroll will succeed MPD chief Pamela Smith after she leaves the department at the end of 2025.
The 23-year veteran has served as Smith’s understudy since 2023 and inherits a police force that is grappling with declining crime levels, a deportation-minded Trump administration eager for the MPD’s cooperation, and a controversy over crime statistics.
Bowser said she is “confident” Carroll will be able to do the job effectively.
“The department has been through an incredibly challenging year, and that’s on top of the day-to-day challenges that our men and women of MPD face every single day to keep our city safe,” Bowser said during a news conference. “I am confident that Chief Carroll is the right leader to meet this moment.”
As assistant chief, Carroll managed the day-to-day operations of the department and recently appeared as the lead officer for the department following the fatal shooting of National Guard members last month. FBI Director Kash Patel mistakenly labeled him the chief of the department at the time.
Before serving as Smith’s understudy, Carroll worked as an assistant chief in charge of the Homeland Security Bureau. He managed the security response to two inaugurations, several state funerals, and the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
He wants the department to strengthen trust, improve transparency, and enhance public safety.
“I am committed to leading this department with integrity, transparency, and a strong sense of duty to the people we serve,” Carroll said during the news conference. “We’ll work to strengthen trust, improve transparency, and ensure that every person in our city feels safe, heard, and respected.”
The D.C. police union expressed optimism around Carroll’s promotion.
“The DC Police Union is optimistic that Interim Chief Jeffery Carroll will usher in a new era of honest leadership, while working to undo the misguided and detrimental policies enacted by DC Council, and prioritize the safety of both residents and officers,” Union chairman Gregg Pemberton said in a statement.
“His proven track record in operational excellence and crisis management positions him uniquely to root out corruption,” he added.
Pemberton’s latter point, rooting out corruption, is expected to be a closely watched issue during Carroll’s early tenure. The House Oversight Committee and the Justice Department both produced reports that accused Smith of using fear as motivation to manipulate crime statistics.
“While witnesses cite misclassifications and purposely downgraded classifications of criminal offenses at MPD for years prior, there appears to have been a significant increase in pressure to reduce crime during Pamela A. Smith’s tenure as Chief of Police that some describe as coercive,” the DOJ report says.
One commander told the Oversight Committee that they felt “extreme pressure” to lower crime statistics.
“Yes, I mean extreme… there’s always been pressure to keep crime down, but the focus on statistics… has come in with this current administration or regime, and you know, that has manifested
publicly,” they said.
MPD suspended a D.C. police commander in July for allegedly altering crime statistics in his district. Smith said then that she did not “condone any official reclassifying criminal offenses outside the guidelines set in MPD policy.”
Another point of contention Carroll will face is the federal government’s intervention in the district. While many cities across the country have been subject to the administration’s sweeping immigration agenda, D.C. has faced some of the most intense scrutiny.
The Trump administration continues to utilize the National Guard in the district, following its earlier takeover of the MPD. While the MPD has reverted to its default leadership, the National Guard continues to patrol underground transit and other public spaces.
The National Guard’s partnership with the MPD has been welcomed by a department facing a personnel shortage. One MPD commander told the House Oversight Committee that the federal surge of law enforcement has assisted him in “sleeping a lot more.”
There’s early confidence that Carroll can manage the district’s complex challenges.
“If you think about Washington, D.C., and you think about what Washington has been through in the past 20 years, Jeff Carroll has played a key role in dealing with all of it,” Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, told the Washington Post. “Jeff Carroll has been that steady hand.”
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But Carroll, a Maryland resident, will have to uproot his family and make the district his new home if he has hopes to be the city’s permanent chief. D.C. law dictates that the chief be a district resident. Bowser has not addressed whether she will put him up for confirmation by the D.C. council. Carroll’s confirmation is required within 180 days.
If he isn’t, D.C.’s next mayor will find someone else after they are elected in 2026.