D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser selected former U.S. Park Police Chief Pamela A. Smith to serve as the next Metropolitan Police Department chief Monday.

Smith will serve as acting chief until the D.C. Council holds a confirmation hearing to permanently elect her, replacing interim chief Ashan M. Benedict, who Bowser appointed in May after former chief Robert J. Contee III resigned in April, according to the Washington Post. If confirmed, Smith will be the District’s second female police chief and the first permanent Black female police chief.

“She knows what the landscape is in D.C. right now,” Bowser said in a press conference Monday. “She is familiar with what’s working at MPD and where we will all work together to do more and better, and she is ready to start on day one.”

Smith joined MPD in 2022 as the first chief equity officer, where she led department efforts on diversity, equity and inclusion, and became the assistant chief for the Homeland Security Bureau in April, according to an MPD press release published Monday. The release states that before joining MPD, Smith worked for the U.S. Park Police from 1998 to 2022, serving as a patrol officer, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, major and deputy chief before ultimately becoming the chief of police in February 2021.

At Bowser’s press conference Monday, Smith said she will focus on reducing crime in the District by devoting more resources to areas with high crime rates, increasing recruitment efforts in the department and investigating the increase in juvenile crime.

“I will be laser-focused to ensure that we do everything we can in this space,” Smith said. “That includes targeting the deployment of our officers to areas impacted by crime, engaging in long-term investigations focused on the most violent individuals, leveraging a whole government approach and I will take the lead in ensuring the effective use of our police officers.”