Washington, D.C., police chief Pamela Smith is resigning her position after just two and a half years on the job, she announced Monday.
Smith has faced intense pressure from President Donald Trump's administration, which took over the Metropolitan Police Department earlier this year and deployed federal law enforcement throughout the city.
"There comes a time when you just know it's time," Smith crime data appear more benign.
As of October, roughly three dozen rank-and-file officers and detectives had lodged complaints with the Justice Department, as the city faces an investigation into whether crime statistics were intentionally misreported under the Trump administration.
According to officers, MPD leadership had for months — and in some cases years — instructed subordinates to downgrade serious offenses. Some precinct-level reports are said to have contained as many as 150 potentially misclassified incidents in the Southeast D.C. Seventh District alone. In about half of those cases, supervisors later upgraded the charges.
"I as the chief of police never, would ever say to anyone to alter stats," Smith said Monday.
While city leaders and Democrats point to data showing violent crime is at a 30-year low, the DOJ and House Oversight Committee are probing whether those numbers are being masked by internal manipulation.
The DOJ’s criminal probe is being run out of D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office.
Fox News' David Spector contributed to this report.