In conversation with Winnipeg police’s newest deputy chief, Danny Smyth

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This article was published 05/09/2015 (3685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In his newly created role as the Winnipeg Police Service’s deputy chief of investigative services, Danny Smyth will oversee five divisions of the city’s police force, including organized crime, major crimes, forensics and technology, specialized investigations (such as child exploitation and sex crimes) and professional standards. The 53-year-old father of two grew up in the North/East Kildonan areas and spent a year working in federal corrections before joining the WPS in 1986. He capitalized on his small stature — “If there is a stereotype for a cop, I certainly don’t fit it” — by working undercover, and when he moved up to management level, Smyth oversaw the development of the tactical and street-crime units. He sat down with the Free Press to talk about his new gig.

Free Press: What do you hope to bring to the job?

Smyth: We’re always going to want to be intelligence-led to try to keep organized crime groups unstable if we can. We don’t want them to get entrenched in the city. But one of the initiatives I’m really kind of stoked about is some outreach to some of the younger siblings. In some of the investigations we’ve been involved in in the last couple of years, we’ve had the ability to identify some of the younger siblings of the gang members with the idea that we try to reach out to them and provide resources… and try to prevent them from following down into that gang lifestyle.

There’s some real good work being done between the street-crime unit and our school-resource officers to try to work with some of the kids that are vulnerable to being influenced by the gangs.

The counter-exploitation unit… has dedicated teams out there now that really try to work with some of the sex-trade workers, to get to know them, find out who they are and, if possible, try to steer them in a way to help them get out of that life. I daresay there are very, very few people who truly want to do that for a living. They truly are the victims of being exploited, so anything we can do to help with the community and help these young — primarily — women, get out of that.

Of course, missing and murdered women, that falls under major crimes for the most part. We have the integrated unit with the Mounties that we’re part of. In addition, we have a historical homicide unit and a missing-persons unit — all told, they combine to do work I think is in keeping with some of the needs of indigenous women here in the city, and certainly there’s lots to be done. One of the areas I’d like to see would be just finding a way to better involve the families.

That’s probably been the biggest criticism police in general have to take — it’s just those lines of communication with the families of the victims.

We’ve certainly had some good success with the integrated unit and if we could carry that over to some of the other units here internally, I’d be pleased about that.

FP: You’re overseeing some high-profile cases, including cases of missing and murdered women. What is that like?

Smyth: It’s been interesting, and one of the things that’s making it more interesting is our relationship with the media in general. There’s been a couple of cases where we’ve really relied on the media to take our message out, so it’s been a two-way street. The Rinelle Harper case was a good example where I made the decision to go out publicly and (release Rinelle’s name even though she’s a youth victim). It’s almost unprecedented to do that, and certainly with the permission of her parents, we were able to put a case like that out into the community, because we really needed the community’s help to try to solve that one. As much as I was nervous about doing that, I was relieved, because the outpouring from the community was tremendous and it really helped break that case.

FP: You’ve been a police officer in Winnipeg for almost 30 years, following in the footsteps of your father, Sgt. Stan Smyth, who retired in 1991 after nearly 38 years of service. What did you learn from him?

Smyth: One of the biggest pieces of advice I still adhere to to this day is it’s easy to get entrenched in the police world where you start hanging around with the people you work with and they become your community. And he advised me to really make an effort to keep in touch with the friends I had before I got on the job. My closest friends are not cops, necessarily. I have a lot of tremendous friends who are cops, but I’ve always been able to maintain my relationships with the fellas and girls I grew up with who aren’t part of the police community. I think it keeps you grounded.

FP: What’s the most pressing issue Winnipeg police have to deal with?

Smyth: I think our efforts in crime prevention (are important), particularly crime prevention through social development; really working with the vulnerable youth in our community, whether it be those being exploited by the gangs or exploited in the sex trade. I think trying to pull them over to this side of the house is really important for us. Certainly, this is a time for indigenous people, too. And they’re being heard and I think it’s important we work with the indigenous community as well. They’re probably the biggest-growing segment of our population right now. They have a lot of young people and it’s important work for us.

FP: What gives you hope for the future in Winnipeg?

Smyth: We’re a diverse community, for sure, and in Manitoba and in Winnipeg in particular, we have a lot of immigration, a lot of people coming in from other parts of the world and the way I see them integrating in the schools has been tremendous. In the school-resource officer program, I got to see that from the ground level and had the opportunity to work with some of the school divisions and see the way they’ve embraced a lot of the newcomers coming into the community. As police, it’s important for us now to build those relationships with various ethnic communities in the city and try to build that trust. For some, they’re coming in with preconceived notions of police and I think it’s important for us to reach out and try to break those down.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca