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ENLARGE
The Union photos/John Hart Nevada County Sheriff Capt. Ron Smith practices Wednesday afternoon at the sheriff's shooting range on Highway 49 past North San Juan.
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ENLARGE
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Range Master Nevada County Sheriff Det. Bill Netherby, left, checks out the handgun before Capt. Ron Smith shoots the gun at the sheriff's range.
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Newly promoted Sheriff's Capt. Ron Smith is a cop's cop who embodies the unlikely combination of cynical street smarts with an enduring sensitivity and love for family and community.
The robust, likable Orange County native, known by other officers as "plug" for fireplug, grew up playing army in his backyard using pipe for a Tailgunner. The smell of crime, such as gunpowder hanging in the air, he said, gets his adrenaline pumping.
"My dad was a cop," he said, sitting in casual training gear at his office at the Eric W. Rood Center in Nevada City earlier this week. "It was all about catching bad guys, and he and his buddies would sit talk about cases and stuff."
Smith, 54, volunteered for the Army right out of high school in 1970 and began working as a correctional officer in Lompoc after his Airborne service in Germany.
From there, he worked as police officer in Guadalupe for three years, then moved to Nevada County, where he worked his way up through the ranks, working for 10 years as a detective in the Investigations unit, handling child abuse and sex crimes. He was eventually promoted to lieutenant of the Investigations, and he was promoted Jan. 1 to captain in the Sheriff's Operations division.
Crime fighting isn't pretty
While it seems whoever comes in contact with him, including arrestees, likes him and finds him easy to talk to, Smith can be a bit rough around the edges.
He admits he is not the poster boy for sensitivity. He curses and talks openly and matter-of-factly about gruesome details of crimes. After being around the often-ugly world of crime for so long, he doesn't realize sometimes he may be offending someone, including Peggy, his wife of 30 years. She doesn't like it when he reveals the gory details.
The robust, likable Orange County native, known by other officers as "plug" for fireplug, grew up playing army in his backyard using pipe for a Tailgunner. The smell of crime, such as gunpowder hanging in the air, he said, gets his adrenaline pumping.
"My dad was a cop," he said, sitting in casual training gear at his office at the Eric W. Rood Center in Nevada City earlier this week. "It was all about catching bad guys, and he and his buddies would sit talk about cases and stuff."
Smith, 54, volunteered for the Army right out of high school in 1970 and began working as a correctional officer in Lompoc after his Airborne service in Germany.
From there, he worked as police officer in Guadalupe for three years, then moved to Nevada County, where he worked his way up through the ranks, working for 10 years as a detective in the Investigations unit, handling child abuse and sex crimes. He was eventually promoted to lieutenant of the Investigations, and he was promoted Jan. 1 to captain in the Sheriff's Operations division.
Crime fighting isn't pretty
While it seems whoever comes in contact with him, including arrestees, likes him and finds him easy to talk to, Smith can be a bit rough around the edges.
He admits he is not the poster boy for sensitivity. He curses and talks openly and matter-of-factly about gruesome details of crimes. After being around the often-ugly world of crime for so long, he doesn't realize sometimes he may be offending someone, including Peggy, his wife of 30 years. She doesn't like it when he reveals the gory details.
At the same time, Smith can barely hold back his emotion when talking about his three beloved grandsons or his autistic daughter, Haley, who lives with him.
"She'll always be with us," Smith said, looking across his office intently at a picture of him and Peggy. "It's been a learning experience."
Disabled daughter teaches constant lessons
Smith and his wife thought something might be different about Haley when she was 4, so they brought her to Stanford University Medical Center where they discovered the truth.
"We didn't know what it was," Smith said.
They sought help from several specialists who eased the transition, and Peggy quit her teaching job to stay at home full-time to care for Haley.
Because Haley would throw fits and sometimes act inappropriately in public, it was a struggle for the couple to get her into public school. They nearly had to take the school district to court, Smith said, but they eventually won the battle and Haley now attends Nevada Union High School.
Haley has a funny habit of getting into his work equipment, he said.
"She'll always be with us," Smith said, looking across his office intently at a picture of him and Peggy. "It's been a learning experience."
Disabled daughter teaches constant lessons
Smith and his wife thought something might be different about Haley when she was 4, so they brought her to Stanford University Medical Center where they discovered the truth.
"We didn't know what it was," Smith said.
They sought help from several specialists who eased the transition, and Peggy quit her teaching job to stay at home full-time to care for Haley.
Because Haley would throw fits and sometimes act inappropriately in public, it was a struggle for the couple to get her into public school. They nearly had to take the school district to court, Smith said, but they eventually won the battle and Haley now attends Nevada Union High School.
Haley has a funny habit of getting into his work equipment, he said.
"She loves handcuffs," he said. "Sometimes Peggy calls me at work to say she locked herself up again."
He smiles when he talks about it his daughter, a young woman who has blossomed into a talented painter and a singer, two passions she inherited from her mother.
"Her painting won first place at the county fair," Smith said. "She likes painting mermaids and fairies."
Haley paints at the Neighborhood Center for the Arts, where staff has turned her artwork into prints that sell for $60 each.
She has taught her father two very important things, Smith said: Sensitivity toward people with disabilities and the value of asking for help when it's needed.
"You don't have to go it alone," is the advice Smith would give any parents raising a disabled child. "Involve your family and let them support you."
Cop wants a tougher criminal justice system
Smith keeps a scrapbook of newspaper articles about his favorite cases and exploits as a cop, including the time he shot out the tires of a truck as the driver - a man on meth wanted for beating his wife - tried to run him over.
He smiles when he talks about it his daughter, a young woman who has blossomed into a talented painter and a singer, two passions she inherited from her mother.
"Her painting won first place at the county fair," Smith said. "She likes painting mermaids and fairies."
Haley paints at the Neighborhood Center for the Arts, where staff has turned her artwork into prints that sell for $60 each.
She has taught her father two very important things, Smith said: Sensitivity toward people with disabilities and the value of asking for help when it's needed.
"You don't have to go it alone," is the advice Smith would give any parents raising a disabled child. "Involve your family and let them support you."
Cop wants a tougher criminal justice system
Smith keeps a scrapbook of newspaper articles about his favorite cases and exploits as a cop, including the time he shot out the tires of a truck as the driver - a man on meth wanted for beating his wife - tried to run him over.
Next to the image of his grandsons, he posts pictures of Dawn Donalds and Crissy Campbell, killed in 1993 by Sam Strange. The double murder case was Smith's first as lead investigator.
"I'm a firm believer in prisons," he said. "People here deserve a break from people who habitually commit crimes. They need to go away for a while instead of getting into a program."
Many of the people he has arrested are working the drug court system, continuing to do drugs and commit crimes while jumping through the hoops of Prop. 36 court, which includes drug testing.
"There's a market in Nevada County for clean urine," he said. "These people just keep getting a way with it. It may be costly to keep people in prison rather than a program, but at least the people get a break from them."
Smith is on a first and nickname basis with nearly everyone with a criminal history in Nevada County.
He gets to know the people he arrests on a more personal level.
"It's interesting to talk with them, and I get a whole lot of information from them because I treat them with dignity and respect," he said. "I treat them like they're interesting people because they really are interesting."
His boss, Sheriff Keith Royal, said Smith has been an invaluable asset to the department.
"Ron has a great interpersonal communication skills, and he's well respected by his peers, subordinates and commanders for jobs he's taken on during his tenure here," Royal said. "He's a go-to guy if you have some type of task or project you need done. He's capable and knowledgeable in investigations and operations. He's very talented."
"I'm a firm believer in prisons," he said. "People here deserve a break from people who habitually commit crimes. They need to go away for a while instead of getting into a program."
Many of the people he has arrested are working the drug court system, continuing to do drugs and commit crimes while jumping through the hoops of Prop. 36 court, which includes drug testing.
"There's a market in Nevada County for clean urine," he said. "These people just keep getting a way with it. It may be costly to keep people in prison rather than a program, but at least the people get a break from them."
Smith is on a first and nickname basis with nearly everyone with a criminal history in Nevada County.
He gets to know the people he arrests on a more personal level.
"It's interesting to talk with them, and I get a whole lot of information from them because I treat them with dignity and respect," he said. "I treat them like they're interesting people because they really are interesting."
His boss, Sheriff Keith Royal, said Smith has been an invaluable asset to the department.
"Ron has a great interpersonal communication skills, and he's well respected by his peers, subordinates and commanders for jobs he's taken on during his tenure here," Royal said. "He's a go-to guy if you have some type of task or project you need done. He's capable and knowledgeable in investigations and operations. He's very talented."
Time for a water break
Smith said that even though he loves the adrenaline rush of his job, he has to pull back. He said he will retire in two years, and his family fully supports him in that decision.
He said he looks forward to spending as much time as possible at the ocean, his sanctuary.
His favorite places to vacation are Fort Bragg, the Channel Islands and Jalama State Beach near Santa Barbara, where he can surf, free dive, spear-fish and scuba dive for abalone and lobster to his heart's content.
"I used to like to go free-diving alone because it so relaxing," he said. "When I'm in the water, I can look around and see that everything around me has been the same for thousands of years, and I'm not at the top of the food chain out there, either."
He said the risk of getting gobbled up by "Whitey," or a Great White Shark, is another welcome shot of adrenaline.
Though he has run into other sharks, he said with a hint of disappointment, he and Whitey have never met.
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To contact Staff Writer Robyn Moormeister, e-mail robynm@theunion.com or call 477-4236.
