The new year brings a fresh start for both Gary Smith and the Emporia Police Department on Monday when Smith begins his job as the city’s new police chief.
For Smith, it’s a new chapter in his career after an eight-year tenure as chief in Northfield, Minn., that wrapped up with a number of much-publicized issues: A controversial news conference about youth drug use, a pending criminal investigation of City Administrator Al Roder and an extended medical leave resulting from one surgery for a neck problem and two for sleep apnea issues.
For Emporia, Smith’s arrival signals hoped-for permanency and stability in the top cop position. Interim Chief Mike Lopez has occupied his post for more than a year since Mike Heffron’s retirement, and Olathe police Capt. Clark Morrow withdrew his acceptance of the job in November citing family reasons.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the Gazette caught up with Smith, still in the process of moving from Northfield, to ask him about his new job, the transition to Emporia and his medical condition.
Q How has the move gone for you and your family? Do you have a house in Emporia?
A Actually, it’s been coming along pretty well ... I’ve got an apartment lined up temporarily. I’m going to work on finding a permanent house (in Emporia), hopefully by February or so.
Q One of your children is still finishing high school up there, is that right?
A Yeah, right. Chris is a senior, so he’d like to stay and graduate. My wife will stay up there with him. My daughter hasn’t decided whether she’s going to come down and stay with me or whether she’s going to finish up there. So we’re still letting her decide yet.
Q A couple of weeks ago, you were down here and got to meet with some members of the department. What were the most important things you took away from the people you met with?
A They’re very concerned about their department, very dedicated to the community, and they are just looking forward to getting going, and that’s just encouraging for me. So I was real pleased and was glad I got a chance to meet with a few people. That kind of helps ease the transition a little bit when you’ve got somebody coming in from someplace else. So it was an opportunity that presented itself, so we took advantage of it.
Q With the way things ended up in Northfield, with your relationship with some of the department and city staff, do you feel like there’s more of an importance than usual on starting off on the right foot in Emporia?
A I tell you what — being a public administrator, you deal with that kind of stuff on a regular basis. It’s just part of the job. You’re judged by who you are and the job you do, and so I have to leave it up to the folks to make up their own mind. So I’ll come down as a police chief and do the best I can, and people will make their decisions based on that, I guess.
I was a successful chief in Northfield for almost eight-and-a-half years, and basically went out on my own terms and had an opportunity to advance, get back to close to home. That’s an opportunity we had been looking for sometime, and it was an opportunity that presented itself.
Q How are things wrapping up (in Northfield)? What kind of reception are you getting as you prepare to leave?
A Actually, I took most of the month of December off on vacation, because I collected vacation time. I had a reception I think on the 17th. A good number of people came out. So the transition’s pretty smooth here. We’ve got good staff up here at the department. They have an acting chief, and folks do their job well, so they’ll be able to make their transition without any difficulty.
Q As you begin your job, what’s your perception of the state of crime and law enforcement in Emporia?
A Well, it looks like there’s a lot of forward thinking as far as planning, and some of the specialized activities and things, they’re (more) ahead of the game than they are in some places, which is encouraging.
Like I said, the folks I got to visit with briefly, I was real encouraged just as far as where things are at. I feel like it’ll be a good transition and a good place to be.
Q How are you physically? How are your medical issues?
A I got a clean bill of health and was released clear back in the first part of December. I’ve been packing and lifting boxes, so that’s usually a good test, right — carrying them up and down stairs. So that’s a good indication.
Q With presidents, people always talk about their first 100 days in office and the media always see that as an evaluation point. Is there any rough time period after which you’d like to begin evaluating your performance as chief?
A I think coming in, especially, you want to give yourself enough time to see what’s going on, and you want to get enough feedback both from the community as well as the department and your elected officials, kind of see where issues are.
I’ve been reading the paper, we subscribed to it a while back. I’ve been checking the Web logs and some of those things, but that’s kind of a two-dimensional view of what’s going on. So walking into the community, and kind of immersing yourself, you can get a better picture of what’s going on, what do you need to look at. (That’s) part of meeting with staff, and seeing where the priorities are there, communities, seeing what the priorities are ... start forming a strategic plan for the future and short-term, long-term-type thing. You’ve got to look at that.
Hopefully within the first 100 days, you’ve got a pretty good idea of a base plan of action that you can kind of share with people at some point. Especially internally, you can get a sense of where that’s at.
A lot of it just depends on what happens. The best-laid plans in public safety, you never know, something could come up that could push things back occasionally. But hopefully things will continue to be relatively calm and we can get that process started.
cloud (anonymous) says...
Welcome to the new chief. I hope that Emporia is a good home for you and your family.
January 4, 2008 at 4:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Absolute (anonymous) says...
Welcome to Emporia!
January 4, 2008 at 9:03 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
neighbor (anonymous) says...
Good luck to you Chief Smith and welcome to Lyon County.
January 5, 2008 at 1:29 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
slipandslide (anonymous) says...
Gwen, since we have heard about al roder so often, will we hear what comes out of the investigation, in other words, the rest of the story?
January 6, 2008 at 5:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
glarson (anonymous) says...
Dear slipandslide,
We will do our best to keep track of the Roder investigation for our readers who are curious.
Gwen Larson
Managing Editor
January 7, 2008 at 6:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )