- Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has named Drug Enforcement Administration Inspection Division head Erik Smith as the state’s next highway patrol superintendent.
- Smith’s predecessor, Herman Jones, retired amid sexual harassment allegations and federal lawsuits over policing practices.
- Smith, an Ellsworth, Kansas native, will take office on July 7. Until then, Lt. Col. Jason DeVore will head the department.
The Kansas governor chose a high-ranking U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official Friday to head the state highway patrol, replacing a retiring superintendent who is facing federal lawsuits over the agency’s policing and allegations that he sexually harassed female employees.
Gov. Laura Kelly’s appointment of Erik Smith came on retiring Superintendent and Col. Herman Jones’ last day. Until Smith can take over as superintendent July 7, patrol Lt. Col. Jason DeVore, who also was named as a defendant in the sexual harassment lawsuit, pursued by five patrol employees.
Smith has strong ties to Kansas. He is a native of the small central Kansas town of Ellsworth, holds 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. He has been chief of the DEA’s Inspection Division since 2021.
FORMER KANSAS POLICE OFFICER SENTENCED TO OVER 23 YEARS FOR SERIES OF SEXUAL ASSAULTS, WINDOW PEEPING
Smith’s appointment must be confirmed by the Kansas Senate next year. Lawmakers are out of session for the 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 high-ranking DEA official Erik Smith, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly announced Friday. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
Kelly had faced pressure from the Republican-controlled Legislature to dismiss Jones, but he announced in February that he would retire. In…
