


The chief of police in Washington, DC, is stepping down from his post after two years as the department boss.
A “high-level source with knowledge of the situation” told News4 that Robert Contee III is ditching the Metropolitan Police Department to take a job as an assistant director with the FBI.
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Contee handed in his resignation Wednesday and is “thrilled with this decision” that will allow him to continue working in DC, but at the federal level, the source said.
Mayor Muriel Bowser confirmed in a tweet that Contee would be leaving the department, but noted that the 33-year-veteran would be “retiring.”
“Now he’s ready for his next chapter,” Bowser wrote.
“He has pushed our criminal justice system to do more and be better. He has left MPD through an incredibly challenging time for our country — from the pandemic to January 6th and navigating the effects of a shrinking department during a time when gun violence is exploding across the nation.”
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Contee, a DC native who joined the force in 1989 when he was a senior in high school, became top cop in May 2021 after serving four months as the department’s interim chief, getting sworn in just four days before the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Upon being confirmed, he said his top goal was to rid the capital’s streets of guns.
Contee passionately declared in July of that year that he was “mad as hell” about the vicious cycle of gun violence.
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In the wake of a brazen shooting that wounded two men and sent restaurant patrons and bystanders scrambling for safety, he fumed that the justice system was “not functioning the way that it should.”
“But you cannot coddle violent criminals. You cannot,” he said.
“What they may require is to be off of our streets because they’re making it unsafe for us. And if that’s what it requires, then that’s what it requires. And we have to own it. We have to own it. Because if not, we see more of this.”
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Contee’s last day will reportedly be June 3.
The MPD not did respond to The Post’s request for comment.