On Monday, Nov. 15 we welcome Richmond’s Chief of Police Gerald M. Smith. Chief Smith has held this position since July 2020 and is responsible for aspects of the city’s police department.
Chief Smith is a law enforcement executive with 28 years of experience in his chosen profession. He is a reform-minded change agent known to guide a police agency with the needed innovation and inclusiveness to move forward, bringing all stakeholders – civic, business and political – to the table. He is well-versed in community policing as well as boots-on-the-ground policing – from recruiting and background investigations to detective work to traffic and DUI enforcement to homicide investigations and critical incident/event management.
Chief Smith leads 700 sworn and 100 civilian personnel for the Richmond Police Department, which serves a population of 232,866, in the fourth largest city in the Commonwealth of Virginia within 62.5 square miles. The Department has an annual budget of $96 million. The Department has four police precincts as well as specialized divisions dedicated to Major Crimes, Traffic, Special Investigations, Community, Youth and Intervention Services, and Internal Affairs. Chief Smith brings a new vision and mission to Richmond Police that places emphasis on community engagement, professional accountability, employee management and access, inclusion and equity, with goal of reimagining public safety.
His many years with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in North Carolina cultivated and developed Chief Smith’s leadership qualifications in policing. Rising through the ranks from a community police officer to eventually captain – first as a recruitment director and then in patrol – Chief Smith then went on to become major of the Central Service Area, commanding four patrol divisions, Operations Command, the Special Events Unit, the Accident Reconstruction Unit, the Motorcycle Unit, the Transit Unit, the DWI Task Force, the Passenger Vehicle for Hire Unit, and the Dignitary Protection Unit. His last role was deputy chief in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Currently in Richmond, Chief Smith is working to incorporate recommendations of Mayor Levar Stoney’s Task Force on Reimagining Public Safety with the strategies and policies of the Richmond Police Department to improve community-police relations as well as the transparency of the Department. Chief Smith is working toward:
A Community Training Academy to ensure residents are at the table when police recruits are going through the academy;
A partnership with Capital One and Leadership Metro Richmond to create a 24/7 human services system;
A proposed budget for a “Community Safety Coordinator” to work with community members and partners on items related to public safety, such as gun violence prevention; and,
An Office of Professional Accountability to address concerns impacting the Richmond Police Department and business cards for officers to give to residents to better connect and improve communication between the community and the department.
A native of Charlotte, N.C., Chief Smith received his bachelor’s in criminal justice from Pfeiffer University and is completing a master’s in public administration from Clemson University. He is married as has two daughters.