Global Courant
Kansas Democratic Governor Laura Kelly has appointed Erik Smith, chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s inspection division, as superintendent of highway patrol. Smith’s predecessor, Herman Jones, retired amid allegations of sexual harassment and federal lawsuits over police practices. will take office on July 7. Until then, Lieutenant Colonel Jason DeVore will lead the department.
The governor of Kansas on Friday selected a senior U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official to head the state highway patrol.
Governor Laura Kelly’s appointment of Erik Smith came on the last day of retiring Superintendent and Colonel Herman Jones. Until Smith can take over as superintendent on July 7, Lieutenant Colonel Jason DeVore, who was also named as a defendant in the sexual harassment lawsuit, will be prosecuted by five patrol officers.
Smith has strong ties to Kansas. Born in the small town of Ellsworth in central Kansas, he earned a criminal justice degree from Friends University in Wichita and served nine years with the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office, also in Wichita, before joining the DEA. As of 2021, he is head of the DEA’s inspection division.
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Smith’s nomination must be confirmed by the Kansas Senate next year. Lawmakers are out this year, but a committee of Senate leaders will determine this summer whether Smith can serve as acting superintendent until a confirmation vote.
Kansas Highway Patrol superintendent Herman Jones (pictured) will be succeeded by senior DEA official Erik Smith, Democratic Governor Laura Kelly announced Friday. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
Kelly was under pressure from the Republican-controlled legislature to fire Jones, but he announced in February that he would retire. When announcing Smith’s appointment, Kelly made no mention of the allegations surrounding Jones and the patrol and thanked Jones for serving 45 years on the force. In a statement from the governor’s office, DeVore thanked Kelly for her “steadfast support” of the agency.
A federal judge is considering the legality of a patrol tactic known as the “Kansas two step,” in which troopers stop traffic and then continue their interactions with drivers, ostensibly to give them time to find incriminating information or get a drug. sniffing dog on site. The judge had a court case last month stating that troopers use the tactic even when they have no reasonable suspicion of a crime.
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Critics claim the patrol targets motorists from other states where marijuana is legal. Kansas is one of the few states without a legalized form of marijuana.
Meanwhile, a trial is scheduled for September in the sexual harassment lawsuit against Jones, DeVore and the state, alleging the female employees faced a hostile work environment.
Jones has denied allegations of improper conduct, and Kelly backed him up, telling The Topeka Capital-Journal in December that the state conducted two independent investigations and found “no basis for the allegations.”
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Jones and DeVore settled a third lawsuit last year, brought by two majors who claimed they were pushed out of the patrol in 2020 in retaliation for helping female employees file sexual harassment complaints. The patrol reinstated the two men to their previous positions and they received more than a year’s back pay.
