When Jeff Smythe began to mull his retirement as Burlington’s police chief, he realized that his departure would mean more than just the loss of his keycard and his reserved parking space in front of the police station.
“I felt that when you retire, you give up your right to complain about what’s going on,” he recalls, “and so I knew that when the time came, I’d have to step back completely.”
Smythe ultimately made good on this resolution when he gave up his post in 2021. Rather than become the P.D.’s equivalent of the quarterback-turned-sports commentator, the now 61-year-old Philadelphia native put some distance between himself and the city’s police force, and he eventually landed a state-level appointment as the head of criminal justice standards for the N.C. Department of Justice…