{"id":75849,"date":"2025-12-08T18:46:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T18:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/75849\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T18:46:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T18:46:06","slug":"fort-pierce-city-commission-unanimously-approves-hiring-of-david-smith-as-next-police-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/75849\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Pierce City Commission unanimously approves hiring of David Smith as next police chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">After a seven-month vacancy, the city of Fort Pierce has a new police chief. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The city commission on Monday unanimously approved the hiring of David Smith to lead the Fort Pierce Police Department. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Smith is the former commander of Eastern District Operations for the Prince William County Police Department in Virginia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/region-st-lucie-county\/fort-pierce\/fort-pierce-city-manager-announces-recommendation-for-police-chief\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Last week,<\/a> Fort Pierce City Manager Richard Chess announced that Smith was his choice to lead the agency. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Smith has 24 years of law enforcement experience, including leadership in patrol operations, strategic planning and community engagement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The position has been unfilled since Police Chief Diane Hobley-Burney <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/region-st-lucie-county\/fort-pierce\/ft-pierce-police-chief-resigns-amid-calls-for-change-in-leadership\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">resigned in May.<\/a> Her resignation came after a report made an extensive request for recommendations for the agency, even though it found the agency performed quality law enforcement services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Fort Pierce Police Officers Union <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/region-st-lucie-county\/fort-pierce\/fort-pierce-police-officers-union-supports-acting-deputy-chief-caleb-gillette-to-become-next-top-cop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">announced in October<\/a> that they supported the city choosing acting Deputy Chief Caleb Gillette to become the next head of the department. However, he was not among the finalists announced on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">WPTV also <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/wptv-investigates\/fort-pierce-police-officers-voiced-deep-frustration-with-department-leadership-in-recent-survey\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">obtained a union survey<\/a> revealing a deep dissatisfaction among Fort Pierce police officers, who critiqued the chief over her lack of visibility within the department and a &#8220;hostile&#8221; work environment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">WPTV anchor Meghan McRoberts also <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/region-st-lucie-county\/fort-pierce\/missing-mismanaged-evidence-in-fort-pierce-leads-to-criminal-cases-being-dropped\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported on an internal investigation<\/a> that found decades of mismanaged evidence, ultimately leading to cases being dropped or people losing personal belongings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to a spokesperson for the city of Fort Pierce, the city spent about $25,000 on a search firm to hire the next police chief.           <\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a seven-month vacancy, the city of Fort Pierce has a new police chief. The city commission on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-75849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}