Dec 13, 2021 4 min read

CALIFORNIA – Jim Smith admits the time was right for a new challenge.

He retired from the Monessen Police Department in November after four years as its chief and another few months as acting chief. As of Dec. 1, Smith is the new chief of the California Borough Police Department.

“I had been considering retirement since November of last year,” Smith said. “I was eligible and when you become eligible to retire in this line of work, you explore your options. The timing for this opportunity was perfect. California was looking for a chief and I had the opportunity to retire, collect a pension from (Monessen) and take on a new challenge, so that’s what I did.”

California has been without a police chief for a good portion of the year after the February death of Tim Sheehan. Tim Kirsch was hired for the post in July, but resigned Sept. 17.

Smith, 51, began his career as a police officer in the mid-1990s as a part-time officer in Monessen and Charleroi, and in 1998 was hired for a full-time job by each department and had to make a choice.

The chance for the 1989 graduate of Monessen High School to work in his hometown enticed him to take the full-time gig in Monessen.

It was actually a night of witnessing Monessen police officers in action that piqued Smith’s interest in a career in law enforcement in the first place. His uncle, Mark Egidi, was an officer in Monessen and invited Smith to ride along for an evening.

“He invited me to come out for a night and see what police work was all about,” Smith recalled. “It was pretty exciting. I remember going into the police station at around 9:30, 10 o’clock to see what was going on and there were radios blaring, officers in and out of the building, cars pulling out with lights and sirens on. It was fascinating to me. It was nonstop. It was at that point in time that I said to myself, ‘I think this is what I want to do.'”

Since Smith attended California University of Pennsylvania and is a product of the school’s police academy, this job also serves as kind of a homecoming.

“Whenever I leave my house and get on I-70 West and head toward California, I do it with a smile on my face, knowing that I have the privilege of working in a community that takes pride in itself,” Smith said. “I’ve noticed the individuals involved in the community work hand-in-hand to better the community.”

Smith now helms a police department with five full-time and three part-time police officers, which is a significantly smaller force than he had in Monessen. However, Smith said it’s an extremely tight-knit department, and most of the officers have ties to the California community.

“They’re a very talented group of officers,” Smith said. “It seems all of the officers here possess a certain skill set where they excel in certain types of investigations or calls. They have a certain sense of pride in the community, and when you’re invested in the community, you’re a better police officer in your community.”

Smith feels his work in Monessen provided him with great experience, as well as work in the drug enforcement field, which has included time with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, with a special task force in the U.S. Department of Justice and as co-chair of the Mon Valley Opioid Coalition.

“I still have a vested interest in that aspect of policing,” Smith said. “Getting people in recovery, getting people clean and sober, that’s near and dear to me.”

Smith admitted he’s doing a lot of observing on his new job to this point, but has set some goals, including increasing the department’s manpower.

“California, like every other police department in the United States, needs more police officers,” Smith said. “People do not want to do this job. It takes a very special kind of person, especially in today’s climate. Every police officer in the country is overwhelmingly underpaid for what we’re asked and tasked to do.

“I’m looking forward to getting our manpower up in the department, to raise the level of training for all of the officers and have a group of police officers that are perfectly capable of handling any type that’s thrown at them in a very professional manner. My goal is to have the most professional, highly trained police department that we could possibly have in this community.”