Longboat Key police chief visits with Kiwanis Club

The Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key got a visit from the police at their Dec. 3 meeting. 

No, it wasn’t due to any rowdy club behavior — the speaker for the day was Police Chief Kelli Smith. 

After breakfast from the Lazy Lobster, the town’s new chief spoke to the club, sharing a bit about her life story as well as her plans for the department’s future and life on Longboat Key. Smith is eager to become part of the community — Salvation Army bell ringing organizer Chris Sachs even got Smith to sign up for a volunteer slot ringing the bell in front of Publix. 

A lifelong Floridian, Smith was excited to come back home after serving as police chief at Northern Arizona University. When she got the call that she got the job, she said she did two things: sell her all-wheel drive car and her snowblower. She arrived in late October. 

She spoke about her plans and leveraging technology to help fight crime.

“There are things that we can improve our services on, so as I'm becoming acclimated to the department and acclimated to the town, there will be things that I begin trying to advance forward for technology.”

Charity is also high on Smith’s list of priorities, especially breast cancer awareness through the Pink Patch Program, as well as donating to food banks in the area through No Shave November and Double Down December. 

Smith fielded several questions from audience members about her ideals and goals for the department, including about extra training, the next hire for the police department and how to get Longboat Key the best officers available. 

“I'm looking to make Longboat Key accredited,” Smith said. “What that means is my policies will have teeth in them, they'll have substance in them, but also, I'm going to set the officers up for success … the policies are going to be clear (and) the language and the expectations will be clear.”

Transparency is top of mind with Smith. When asked about her thoughts on the “defund the police” movement, she acknowledged it as an emotional push, but that in many departments, there isn’t a lot of discretionary funding. Educating the public on the workings of the department — like that when a department gets body cameras, there’s an extra cost for cloud storage — would go a long way. 

“Anybody who puts this uniform on with this patch, when they engage with a citizen, the citizen is going to receive a high level of service, and that officer is going to know what they need to do,” Smith said. 

Three prongs of her philosophy, Smith said, are that officers must add value to their community, that mediocrity is not the benchmark and that little things matter, especially to community members. 

“I have never left a place that was worse (than) when I got there,” Smith said. “I always made it better. I always added value. That's my goal here. You guys deserve that.”

The Kiwanis Club hosts meetings at 8:30 a.m. on every first and third Thursday of the month at the Lazy Lobster. Breakfast is $10. Email President Lynn Larson at [email protected] if interested in attending.