WATCH: DC Police Chief Fails To Understand Basic Police Language

D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith is going viral for all the wrong reasons after she appeared to not understand a question about the department’s “chain of command” after President Donald Trump took federal control of the city in order to crack down on crime.

“Can you tell us what the chain of command is now?” a reporter asked Smith during a press conference held by D.C. leaders on Tuesday morning. “What does that mean?” the police chief responded.

The reporter followed up by asking whether Attorney General Pam Bondi was coordinating with the mayor or her department. At that point, Mayor Muriel Bowser stepped in to explain the department’s chain of command following Trump invoking section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which allows the federal government to take emergency control of D.C. police forces.

Smith’s answer immediately went viral on social media, with many users expressing absolute bewilderment at the chief’s inability to understand basic terminology. “I’ve never known of any police chief who doesn’t know what ‘chain of command’ means,” said veteran attorney Phil Holloway. “Maybe the first piece of cleaning up crime in DC is to reform hiring practices.”

“DC Police Chief Pamela Smith doesn’t even know what chain of command means. I’m not joking. She’s the perfect example of DEI failure,” conservative activist Robby Starbuck chimed in.

Prior to serving as chief of police, Smith was employed as the department’s “chief equity officer,” where she was largely responsible for overseeing DEI initiatives. “DEI promotes this kind of incompetence,” Starbuck added.

The viral exchange came after Mayor Bowser held a press conference on Tuesday morning following her meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Our organizational chart, how we do business, how we fund the police, none of that has changed,” Bowser explained, adding that her office has been in close contact with the Justice Department.

“We have more police, and we want to make sure we use them,” she added.

Trump on Monday federalized the city’s police force after years of violent crime and a string of high-profile attacks, including the killing of a congressional intern in June, an ambush shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers back in May, and a brutal assault on a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer last week.