David M. Smith, Fort Pierce’s police chief since January, spoke at two town hall meetings April 8 and April 16, the first in his four months on the job.
Both meetings – held at Lincoln Park Academy April 8; and the 25th Street/Midway Road Discovery Church April 16 – paralleled each other in multiple ways.
They attracted small, but vocal segments of the city from its historic downtown to its surrounding rural patches. Approximately 35 attended April 8 and 20 on April 16.
In both meetings, Smith stepped away from the podium after giving written remarks to take questions and establish an even rapport with his audience.
The challenges of policing Fort Pierce, said Smith, a 22-year veteran of the Prince William County, Va., Police Department, revolved around furthering public safety and making better face-to-face contact. “This is about solving problems, not labeling communities.”
His talks with local “storeowners and faith leaders,” Smith said, brought a “consistent” range of issues to bear, including repeat crimes in select areas and needed care for the city’s homeless and poor. “That requires us to be deliberate as we deploy our resources.”
“We are not criminalizing homelessness, but we are addressing behavior that impacts public safety and quality of life,” Smith added. “Community engagement is important, but it has to be intentional as well.”
One step includes a “trauma-informed approach” to connect with more vulnerable locals to promote mental health along with reducing incidents and recidivism, Smith said. “Our goal is always to provide the services that they need. We’re not going to arrest our way through that problem, nor should we try to.”
This courtesy may sometimes extend to officers taking people in under the Baker Act, which requires a 72-hour hospital psychiatric observation before evaluation and release. “While you may see officers taking (someone) into custody in a situation that’s not an arrest, that’s just facilitating those services,” Smith said.
Another step would be the introduction of an annual report on city police operations, usually distributed between March and April in other U.S. law enforcement agencies.
“We’re a little too far in the year now to put the information together from 2025, but you can expect to see that next year for 2026, so the community can see what’s going on,” Smith said. He added credit for his fellow command staff for reducing citywide crime last year.
Smith’s tenure follows shake-ups that rocked Fort Pierce police throughout 2025: from the sudden resignation of previous chief Sharon Hobley-Burney in May, to the race to succeed her that ended with Smith’s hiring in mid-December.
Public sentiment soured when the City Commission decided to pass over candidates native to the city and Florida by early December. That went away weeks later, when the commission unanimously selected Smith as their new chief.
Smith said this factor will not impact his duties. “As a chief from the outside, it’s important to get to know the community. I’ve met with many different boards and groups (and) made myself available to folks who get to talk to me about the issues that they’re having.”
Like Fort Pierce, Smith’s former jurisdiction – located approximately 25 miles south of Washington, D.C. – houses an ethnically diverse population in a community with centuries of history.
“It is the 10th most diverse county in the United States,” Smith said, citing U.S. Census Bureau data. He added his former police department fielded approximately 800 officers to serve a population of “well over” 500,000. Talking with locals on a beat about their issues proved “critical to success” in his policing.