Chief Pamela Smith pushed back Friday morning on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s move to install the Drug Enforcement Administration chief at the head of the district’s police, warning that the directive could upend the department’s operations.

The Trump administration, stepping up its crackdown on policing in the nation's capital, on Thursday named the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration to be Washington's “emergency police commissioner" with all the powers of the police chief — a significant move that increases national control over the city as part of the federal government's law-enforcement takeover.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a directive late on Thursday naming Drug Enforcement Administration head Terry Cole as the "emergency police commissioner" of Washington's Metropolitan Police Department.