Pamela Smith’s voice soared and quivered like a preacher in midsermon as she recalled her troubled childhood and how it helped prepare her for the challenges she faces as the new police chief in the nation's capital.
“I stand before you as a child who had no hopes, who had no dreams — they were far beyond my reach. But I believe that all things are possible,” she said at her introductory news conference in Washington, in cadences honed by years as an ordained Baptist minister. “I believe I bring a fresh perspective, a different kind of energy, a different level of passion to what I’m going to do.”
