this is not a real estate problem, witmer responded to congressman adams, it was the streets of d.c. that were the problem. the officer originally brought in to clean up a corrupt narcotics unit in the early 1950s had subsequently gone on to lead the internal investigation unit. widely viewed as beyond reproach, he was a comfortable sense as police chief in the sense that he had not turned the department upside down vetting out corruption either. when president johnson heard layton was selected to run the mpd just days after the president's election triumph, he was irate, no doubt because he had not been consulted. layton seemed content to run the department just as his predecessor had done, and johnson -- who had some clear ambition to exert more authority over the mpd -- finally resorted to circumventing the new chief. in 1967, johnson appointed walter washington, the last presidential appointment to the d.c. commission and the first one to be designated mayor commissioner. and later under home rule, the city's first elected mayor. upon appointment as mayor commissioner, washington