POSTED: Saturday, Jan. 09, 2010

Longtime Whatcom Co. sheriff's deputy helped transform boating unit

In 20 years patrolling Whatcom County waterways and Puget Sound, Sheriff's Deputy Stu Smith saw everything from migrating whales to stranded kayakers to drunken boaters. He even found a bag containing $200,000 cash.

While many residents may know Smith from the boating-safety commercials he did with Bellingham comedian Ryan Stiles, his 30-year career with the Sheriff's Office helped the boating unit expand, increase its collaboration with federal law enforcement agencies and take on a role in homeland security.

Smith, 57, retired Friday, Jan. 8.

"I've been called the fun police or the boat Nazi," Smith said. "We're responsible for all the recreational boats and boating law enforcement in all the waters of Whatcom County. It's just keeping people safe."

For Smith, who was born in British Columbia and grew up in Bellingham, life has never strayed far from water. His mother was raised in Nova Scotia, and he has commercial fishing in his ancestry.

A recreational diver, Smith has explored the waters of Thailand, the Galapagos Islands and Barbados, among others - a list that undoubtedly will grow in his retirement.

Smith joined the Sheriff's Office in January 1980 and worked as a patrol deputy, the resident deputy in Point Roberts, a traffic deputy and a crime scene photographer.

His experience as a crime scene investigator paid off in 2002, when he and Detective Steve Harris investigated a boating death on Baker Lake, he said.

Two boaters, both intoxicated, decided to play a game of chicken. The bigger boat won but killed one man in the process, Smith said.

Smith re-created the crime scene while Harris interviewed those involved; their investigation would lead to the first prosecution and conviction of a homicide by watercraft in Washington state.

In 1990, the Sheriff's Office boating safety program started, at the time consisting of two deputies patrolling Lake Samish and Lake Whatcom for unruly boaters, Smith said.

Over the years, the unit's watercrafts, waterways and deputies increased. At one point the unit had 15 deputies; county budget troubles have reduced that number to five, Smith said. The unit also does safety checks on boats and offers boating-safety classes.

"The primary mission is that at the end of the day, you go home alive," Smith said. "We made the place a lot safer to recreate in."

In 2004, Smith's role changed dramatically when he became a special services deputy with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In that role, he assisted investigations with the Bellingham detachment of Customs' Air and Marine Division and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In one case, ICE agents were awaiting a smuggler near Birch Bay. As they approached his boat, the agents saw him throw a backpack overboard. The agents called Smith, with his diving experience, to retrieve it.

After spending seven hours searching the bay, Smith spotted the backpack in some eelgrass. It contained $200,000 cash. Sixty-percent of the cash was given to the county government, he said.

On another case, deputies helped the agents plan a bust of a boat suspected in drug smuggling. The agents stopped the boat and found $345,000 on it, he said.

"Not only did we share in the cash, but we got the boat," Smith said.

Smith also collaborated with Customs and Border Protection agents to obtain and install a nuclear-radiation detecting device on one of the unit's boats.

The device will aid in detecting nuclear materials as the boat patrols waters west of Lummi Island and to Point Roberts, he said.

"It's the county helping to protect the nation," Smith said. "We're doing a little bit in protecting our community, and that's what it's all about."