In recent years, Washington, DC has experienced sizable declines in violent crime. These declines have outpaced national trends across most violent crime categories. To explore the role of the Metropolitan Police Department in the violent crime decline, researchers conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with department leadership and staff to understand the critical components within the department's violent crime strategy. Approximately fifty initiatives were discussed. Using extant literature on policing best practices to categorize the initiatives, the study concludes that MPD places significant emphasis on community policing, among other strategies. Implications for the departments strategic planning process are discussed.