PORT ANGELES — Brian Smith, who has served as interim Port Angeles police chief since Terry Gallagher retired in March, has been named to the permanent post.
Smith, hired as deputy chief in 2008, will be on the payroll as the city’s top law enforcement officer beginning Monday, City Manager Dan McKeen, who offered Smith the promotion Thursday, said Friday.
The hiring process, ongoing since January, included participation of a community review board and panel interviews with city staff and supervisors.
“Brian has done a great job in building relationships with local, state and federal law enforcement as well as community groups, as evidenced during the community panel,” McKeen said.
Smith will oversee a 2016 operating budget of $5.1 million for the police department and $2.6 million for the Peninsula Communications dispatch system. He will be in charge of a staff of 61 positions, including 30 commissioned officers.
“I’m very excited,” Smith, 59, said of his new position.
McKeen said Smith must decide whether the deputy chief position will be filled.
Smith also will prepare the 2017 budget, which he said Friday he has been doing anyway since 2013.
Smith was hired the same year Gallagher, who has served with the Port Angeles Police Department for more than 30 years, became chief.
Smith played a major role in obtaining federal Stonegarden grants for implementing the mobile data project between local law enforcement agencies as well as increasing foot patrol in the downtown area, city officials said in a prepared statement.
Smith also collaborated with city staff to promote a wireless mesh network and to use grant money to obtain computers in all patrol vehicles.
He also applied for and received a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant that allowed a security system to be installed along the waterfront, according to the statement.
Smith has a background in criminal justice studies from the University of California with a bachelor’s degree in political science.
He studied at the FBI National Academy in Virginia and received a Master of Public Administration degree from Montana State University.
Smith served for many years in the National Park Service, working on criminal investigations and 9-1-1 public safety dispatch, with many of those years in a supervisory role.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
