Bittersweet job change for deputy

LA CRESCENTA ? After 17 years at the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station, James Smith says he is ready for a change.

The 55-year-old veteran deputy, of Covina, is packing up his things and his family for a career move that will take him from being a sheriff’s deputy in Southern California to overseeing the police department in St. Anthony, Idaho.

“I’ve been looking for a job for a couple of years, and my wife has wanted to leave for many years, so this is the best opportunity that came along,” said Smith, who was sent off Wednesday with a goodbye barbecue.

On Saturday, he will depart for the small town, which has a population of 3,350, a seven-officer police department and a roughly $350,000 budget to work with every year.

“As the working police chief, I’ll have a whole gamut of responsibilities for the police force there,” Smith said. “But the basic concerns are pretty much the same. Usually the No. 1 thing is traffic safety. They do have a little bit of meth to deal with there too.”

Smith ? who has been in law enforcement for about 30 years, including an 11-year stint as a military policeman ? worked traffic enforcement in La Cañada Flintridge during the majority of his time with the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station.

“He’s kind of an icon around the station and around La Cañada as it relates to traffic,” Lt. Joe Efflandt said. “He’s always made sure the school zones were safe.”

Smith ensured traffic safety around many La Cañada Flintridge schools, include Palm Crest Elementary and La Cañada High School, he said.

“Everybody pretty much knew me,” he said. “Every morning I saw the same parents, and all the kids would say, ‘Hi Officer Smith.’ They wouldn’t call me deputy.”

Having been so involved in the community, Smith’s departure is bittersweet, Efflandt said.

“I talked to him the other day, and he told me he’s looking forward to the new assignment, but leaving here is going to be difficult,” he said. “But you know, its time for him to move on.”

While it will be a change to go from the Foothills to a small town in Idaho, Smith said he is ready for it.

“It’s a fairly quiet community, but it’s 15 miles from other major cities in the area,” he said. “It’s not an isolated community. And I’m not completely alien. I’ve lived in small communities and large.”

Smith hopes after he takes the reigns on July 1, he will be able to continue the good work of the former police chief as well as bring in some new ideas, he said.

That shouldn’t be hard, Efflandt said.

“He’s got a very strong work ethic and he is a highly-motivated individual,” Efflandt said.