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Commerce City's next police chief says he is looking forward to taking over his new post in January. The police union is far less enthusiastic.
Officials announced Troy Smith's appointment Friday. Smith, the department's fifth chief in six years, was chosen from a pool of four previously named finalists despite the union's concerns.
"I'm excited," Smith said. "This is a wonderful opportunity to get to lead a department with very competent and capable people."
Smith will take over as leader of Commerce City police beginning Jan. 14 after nine years as deputy chief with Grand Junction's Police Department.
The Commerce City department's union leaders said they believe Smith is mostly interested in having the title of chief and doesn't have what it takes to turn their troubled department around.
"We're not happy," union president Ken Harris said. "Some members feel he misrepresented himself."
Union leaders and some officers said they are cautious about trusting a new chief and question Smith's ability to relate to them after having moved quickly off street patrol early in his career.
Before moving to Grand Junction, Smith worked in the Thornton Police Department for 10 years, serving on the Metro Gang Task Force and North Metro Task Force.
But Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates — who has known Smith for about seven years — said gaining the experience to become a chief while still working enough as a street cop to keep credibility with officers is a difficult balance.
"If you spend your entire time in patrol, you wouldn't gain the experience you need to bring into this position," Oates said. "If you asked every chief and sheriff in the state who in the rank of deputy chief was most prepared to become chief, everyone would point to Troy."
Smith said he is aware of long-standing issues in the Commerce City Police Department and the year-long investigations into multiple allegations of coverups, mismanagement and officer-on-officer harassment.
He said his top priority will be to build relationships.
"I'm hoping that I can come back to Adams County and help the department grow out of these issues and heal and move forward," Smith said. "I don't have a solution ready — that would be premature — but I can tell you I think communication in this situation is going to be very important."
Smith became well-known in Colorado law enforcement when he helped start one of the state's largest law enforcement databases, the Colorado Information Sharing Consortium.
Oates, chairman of the consortium, worked with Smith, now vice chairman of the group, to expand the database to get 95 agencies across Colorado sharing records.
"Troy had a huge role negotiating with vendors to get reasonable prices and bringing other agencies on board," Oates said.
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372, yrobles@denverpost.com or twitter.com/yeseniarobles
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