00:00Well good morning everybody, I'm Uriel Bowser and I am with members of my team including the Chief of Police,
00:14the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, Lindsay Appiah, and the City Administrator for the District, Kevin Donahue.
00:21We just completed a meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi where we were discussing the President's executive order.
00:33We're happy to take a few questions.
00:35Mayor Marielle Carbone with DC News Now, can you give any idea more, Natalie, talk to Pam Bondi about what it's going to look like with her oversight?
00:44The Chief can talk to you about her meetings with federal officials and the NPD strategic plan moving forward.
00:57Thank you, Madam Mayor.
00:59So I had the opportunity yesterday and this morning to be with Mr. Terry Cole who's the Administrator from the DEA
01:05and also Mr. Gaddai Staralto called Gaddai from the U.S. Marshals, the Director of the U.S. Marshals.
01:13And we have been working collaboratively. I think this is going to be a good effort.
01:17It's going to be an effort that's supported by both teams, the Metropolitan Police Department as well as our federal partners.
01:22As you know, we work daily with them.
01:25What we've done at this point is we have provided the team, the administrator, with a strategic plan on how we will provide resources around our city.
01:35I think it's something that is doable. We know that we have to get illegal guns off of our street.
01:40And if we have this influx or enhanced presence, it's going to make our city even better.
01:46Chief, what's your role in all this?
01:48I am the Chief of Police for the Metropolitan Police Department.
01:51And being the Chief of Police, I am certainly the one who champions to ensure that we reduce violent crime across our city.
01:58That is why the mayor appointed me to do that job, which is why you've seen the reduction in crime across our city.
02:03This effort will only help us enhance and build upon that.
02:06Are you answering to Terry Cole?
02:09I answered to Mayor Muriel Bowser.
02:12And let me just say this. Let us not have any controversy with that, okay?
02:17Because I know people want to build upon and create division.
02:20We're here to work together with our federal partners, and that's what we're going to do.
02:24Chief, what are you going to do that?
02:26Can you explain what the National Guard is likely to do?
02:30What the federal agents are likely to do?
02:32So the way we would do any operational plan across our city, we would create a plan.
02:38We would put our resources together.
02:40We would allocate and look at the locations around our city where we believe there are areas of pockets of crime that we would like to address.
02:49We also know that there are opportunities for us to build upon our community engagement with our federal partners who work with us every day, and this is the time for us to do it.
02:57I won't go into the details of the levels of our operational plan, but you will see the Metropolitan Police Department working side-by-side with our federal partners in order to enforce the efforts that we do around the city.
03:09Can you tell us what the chain of command is now?
03:12What does that mean?
03:13Well, is it Pam Bondi speaking to the mayor, speaking to you, or how does this work?
03:16So the executive order is clear.
03:19The president has requested MPD services, and our home rule charter outlines the process.
03:28The president designated Attorney General Bondi as his proxy to request services for me.
03:36But does the Attorney General have the authority to implement changes at MPD, or just request changes?
03:43The executive order is pretty clear, and so is the law.
03:47The president has the authority, by virtue of the statute, to request services.
03:53Our organizational chart, how we do business, how we fund the police, how we make changes, none of that has changed.
03:59So you retain hiring, firing?
04:01Yes.
04:02You've had some time to think about it since yesterday.
04:05How do you sum up how this has played out where you didn't know about this before it was announced?
04:11What I'm focused on is the federal surge and how to make the most of the additional officer support that we have.
04:22We have the best in the business and MPD and Chief Pamela Smith to lead that effort and to make sure that the men and women who are coming from federal law enforcement are being well used.
04:34And that if there's National Guard here, that they're being well used.
04:39And all in an effort to drive down crime.
04:42So how we got here or what we think about the circumstances right now, we have more police and we want to make sure we're using them.
04:54Are you concerned at all that some of the police that are out there are FBI agents who are assigned to offices who are now controlling the streets tonight?
05:03I'm going to rely on the police chief to work with her counterparts to make sure people are being deployed in a useful way.
05:13Could you explain what the nature of the relationship between the chief that's being very going to be during the 30 day period?
05:20It's going to be she's going to work hand in hand with the people that the president has designated.
05:27Just a couple months.
05:28Chief, we hear in some other jurisdictions the National Guard are made up primarily of police and law enforcement.
05:35Do we know the makeup of the D.C. National Guard?
05:38I wouldn't be able to say that off hand. I think they come from a lot of backgrounds.
05:42Are there a lot of law enforcement actually?
05:44There are a number of Metropolitan Police Department and officers from other law enforcement outfits,
05:50firefighters and others who make up our D.C. National Guard because that's who makes up our city.
05:54And does the National Guard have the power to make arrests on a day to day basis? How does that work?
05:58No, the National Guard is not law enforcement.
06:01And so as the chief said, we regularly because of what we do in our city work with the National Guard and we'll do the same.
06:07They will coordinate through the Metropolitan Police Department for any services that they're providing during this time.
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