Mar­i­on Police Depart­ment Detec­tive Lieu­tenant Leland Smith will retire in May, com­plet­ing 20 years of service.

Fol­low­ing a 15-year career with Mar­i­on Com­mu­ni­ty Schools, Smith became an MPD Police Offi­cer on May 8th, 2006. He served on Patrol, Crash Inves­ti­ga­tion Team, Hon­or Guard, then was select­ed to join Mar­i­on and Grant County’s Joint Effort Against Nar­cotics (JEAN) Team. He was a Detec­tive with the JEAN Team, serv­ing two lengthy stints between 2009 and 2016, and from 2020 to present day. Smith also helps main­tain the fleet of police vehi­cles along­side Deputy Chief Mark Stefanatos. 

Det. Lt. Smith excelled at firearms and became a cer­ti­fied Glock armour­er – win­ning the pres­ti­gious MPD ​“Top Gun” shoot­ing award in 2008. He also received two dis­tinct awards for Mer­i­to­ri­ous Ser­vice fol­low­ing two sep­a­rate inci­dents where his train­ing and skills afford­ed him the abil­i­ty to save lives.

Smith’s pas­sion for teach­ing has lived out through many capac­i­ties through Field Train­ing, Detec­tives, and much more.

Police Chief David Gilbert said, ​“Lt. Smith pro­vid­ed me the won­der­ful priv­i­lege to hire him 20 years ago, and then to see him out now as a griz­zled vet­er­an as he moves on to his next chal­lenge. Leland has been a ded­i­cat­ed, coura­geous pub­lic ser­vant as a Patrol Offi­cer, most recent­ly lead­ing the JEAN Team Drug Task Force, and every assign­ment in between. Leland took a cut in pay to start his career in ser­vice, which was a sign of his extra­or­di­nary com­mit­ment to help­ing oth­er peo­ple. He will be missed, but I’m very proud to have called Leland a loy­al part­ner, and could­n’t be more excit­ed to see what lies ahead for this good man.”

Although retire­ment will not be offi­cial for a few months, the depart­ment host­ed a retire­ment par­ty for Smith on Feb­ru­ary 19th.

Smith said, in retire­ment, he looks for­ward to spend­ing time with fam­i­ly and enjoy­ing some fishing.