From 1995 to 2020, Smith served various positions in Austin, starting as a patrol officer and ending his career as an assistant chief of police for the area of the city north of the Colorado River.
After his time with the police department, Smith focused on wellness and counseling opportunities for officers.
Community Impact spoke with Smith about his new role, his goals for the Fair Oaks Ranch Police Department and his background. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What brought you to Fair Oaks Ranch?
Some consulting friends of mine said there was a small town in need that was between Austin and San Antonio. They didn’t give me any other information until I said that I was interested. Then, we arranged a meeting with [City Manager Scott Huizenga], and he told me a little about this city and some of the challenges with the police department. I looked at it as I have been preparing for the last 30 years for an opportunity just like this, to work with young officers who are starving for guidance and leadership and want to learn all they can. I come from such a high-stress, intense schedule of never having time off, and it never really allowed for any projects to ever be completed. ... I thought with an agency like this, I could start working on improving culture, sharing leadership lessons and trying to create a culture of oneness for the whole city to where the public is the police and the police is the public and we are all on the same page trying to improve services not just for the police department, but overall for the city.
What are some of your priorities, both short term and long term, as police chief?
I think just trying to have a culture of leadership, a culture of caring, a culture that’s front-facing towards the community to where they know our faces and our names and they trust us enough to ask for help. Let’s get the community on our side and help us keep an eye out for the well being of all the neighbors here.
Other communities have seen challenges in recruiting officers, does Fair Oaks Ranch also have these challenges, and how do you plan on navigating them?
Policing lately and for the foreseeable future will have staffing challenges. I think across the board, it is about a 20% vacancy rate. I think the way that you overcome that is to start raising the standards to make sure that you have competitive benefits, but also you want to create a culture where people want to be. I think it is important to make sure that everybody we have here wants to be here, and then they become our biggest recruiting source when they start telling their relatives and their friends that this is the place for anybody that wants to be a police officer. I see too many larger departments where the internal culture is so negative that they ward off recruits. I think it is important to have that culture where [officers] know they are taken care of, they know that we listen and hear what their concerns are, and know that, for me personally, I have a good relationship with the other leaders within the city as well as our other partners.
What is something that you would like the residents of Fair Oaks Ranch to know about you?
I look at this as a unique opportunity that I want to earn every day, and I show up with positivity and a whole lot of experience. My goal is to protect this community and ensure that all of the great things that it has going for it right now stay that way.
