FAIRFIELD - Ever since he was a freshman in high school, Joel Smith has felt a calling to be in law enforcement. Now he is Fairfield’s Chief of Police.
Smith hails from Burlington, and graduated from Mediapolis High School. During a career class in his first year of high school, the Des Moines County school resource officer addressed the students on what law enforcement was all about. The message resonated with Smith, and after he graduated from high school in 2007, he set his sights on becoming a police officer.
At the time, landing a job in the field was extremely difficult due to the large pool of applicants. Smith recalls that, in the year he was selected, he was perhaps one of only three candidates to be offered a job among the roughly 130 people who took the police officer selection test in his cohort.
Smith joined the Fairfield Police Department in 2011, the second officer hired by then Police Chief Julie Kinsella. New officers train with more experienced officers by accompanying them on ride-alongs for 14 weeks, and Smith’s partner was Jay Zaiser, who started on the force the same year Smith was born. Though they were a generation apart, Smith and Zaiser connected over thei...