WASHINGTON, DC – Attorney General Pam Bondi restored Chief Pamela Smith’s authority over Washington, DC’s police department on Friday.
Following an uptick in violent crime in Washington, D.C., alongside a particularly jarring attack on a former D.O.G.E. employee which the president seemingly took personal, the federal law enforcement takeover of the nation’s capital continues with even greater fervor than anticipated.
On August 14th, AG Bondi issued a two-page directive regarding the federal endeavor in D.C. where she named an “emergency police commissioner” and put an end to the sanctuary policies within the capital that have eroded the ability for immigration officials to carry out their mission.
The aforementioned order, aptly dubbed “Restoring Safety and Security to the District of Columbia,” largely focused on upending the prohibitive elements outlined in the “Sanctuary Values Amendment Act of 2020,” which became law within the capital in April of 2021.
Much like the prohibitions adopted by numerous sanctuary cities and states across the country, D.C. put into motion a law that forbade corrections employees and law enforcement officers from informing “a federal immigration agency an individual's date and time of release, location, address, personal identifying information, medical information, photograph, or criminal case information.”
Furthermore, the aforesaid law also prohibited local law enforcement from even sharing “an office, booth, or any facility or equipment” with immigration authorities when believed to be in furtherance of immigration enforcement operations.
In tandem with upending the anti-immigration enforcement laws adopted by D.C. in years past, AG Bondi’s order also tackled various general orders issued via MPD leadership which hampered collaboration with federal authorities, concluding in the latest order with, “To the extent that provisions in this order conflict with any existing MPD directives, those directives are hereby rescinded.”
Aside from rectifying the years long caveats baked into D.C. law and police policies regarding immigration enforcement, AG Bondi also named Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole as MPD’s emergency police commissioner, thereby displacing MPD Chief Smith as head of the outfit.
Needless to say, D.C. officials aren’t taking the federal takeover lightly, with D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb having already filed suit against the federal government in an effort to secure a temporary restraining order against AG Bondi’s stripping of Chief Smith’s leadership role. AG Schwalb’s office issued a statement following the filing of the suit on August 15th, which reads, “Congress did not grant the President authority to displace the Chief of Police, assert operational control over MPD or rescind MPD policies – as the Administration seeks to do.”
The reversal came after a federal court questioned Bondi’s earlier decision to name DEA Chief Terry Cole as emergency police commissioner, according to aa.com.
Following an uptick in violent crime in Washington, D.C., alongside a particularly jarring attack on a former D.O.G.E. employee which the president seemingly took personal, the federal law enforcement takeover of the nation’s capital continues with even greater fervor than anticipated.
On August 14th, AG Bondi issued a two-page directive regarding the federal endeavor in D.C. where she named an “emergency police commissioner” and put an end to the sanctuary policies within the capital that have eroded the ability for immigration officials to carry out their mission.
The aforementioned order, aptly dubbed “Restoring Safety and Security to the District of Columbia,” largely focused on upending the prohibitive elements outlined in the “Sanctuary Values Amendment Act of 2020,” which became law within the capital in April of 2021.
Much like the prohibitions adopted by numerous sanctuary cities and states across the country, D.C. put into motion a law that forbade corrections employees and law enforcement officers from informing “a federal immigration agency an individual's date and time of release, location, address, personal identifying information, medical information, photograph, or criminal case information.”
Furthermore, the aforesaid law also prohibited local law enforcement from even sharing “an office, booth, or any facility or equipment” with immigration authorities when believed to be in furtherance of immigration enforcement operations.
In tandem with upending the anti-immigration enforcement laws adopted by D.C. in years past, AG Bondi’s order also tackled various general orders issued via MPD leadership which hampered collaboration with federal authorities, concluding in the latest order with, “To the extent that provisions in this order conflict with any existing MPD directives, those directives are hereby rescinded.”
Aside from rectifying the years long caveats baked into D.C. law and police policies regarding immigration enforcement, AG Bondi also named Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole as MPD’s emergency police commissioner, thereby displacing MPD Chief Smith as head of the outfit.
Needless to say, D.C. officials aren’t taking the federal takeover lightly, with D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb having already filed suit against the federal government in an effort to secure a temporary restraining order against AG Bondi’s stripping of Chief Smith’s leadership role. AG Schwalb’s office issued a statement following the filing of the suit on August 15th, which reads, “Congress did not grant the President authority to displace the Chief of Police, assert operational control over MPD or rescind MPD policies – as the Administration seeks to do.”
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