Suffolk major heads to Wisconsin
Published 9:53 pm Monday, November 30, 2015
Maj. Dean Smith, one of three deputy police chiefs in Suffolk, will take the helm of the Oshkosh, Wis., police department in January.
Smith says he plans to retire from the Suffolk Police Department, where he has worked for the past 27 years, on Jan. 1. Less than a week later, on Jan. 5, he is scheduled to be sworn in as chief of the Oshkosh Police Department.
According to the department’s website, Oshkosh employs 99 uniformed officers serving a city of about 66,000 people.
The Oshkosh Police and Fire Commission extended a conditional offer to Smith in mid-November, according to city spokeswoman Emily Makowski. The offer is contingent upon Smith’s passing of physical and psychological reviews and is slated to come up before the commission for final approval today, she said.
Smith, who is from Suffolk, says he has a sister who lives in Wisconsin.
“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to work with all the members in the Oshkosh community,” he said.
In Suffolk, Smith oversees Suffolk’s criminal, narcotics and gang investigations, forensics, crime analysis and intelligence. He also oversees leadership and management training for the department’s administrative command and has focused on community policing in Suffolk.