Across the last 18 seasons of the Clink, We have had some really raw conversations. This is one of most listened to episodes with Will Smith.
In this recap, Brent sits down with Will Smith — a former special operations police officer whose life has taken him from growing up off the grid in rural Tasmania to standing on the frontline of Australia’s toughest policing units, and now, to working tirelessly with at-risk youth.
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Episode Transcript
Approche production.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
You know, I'm very grateful that you've been able to
give us this time to share your journey getting into
the force.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
How was that for you and what was the first
couple of years?
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Like, Yeah, So my journey through police sort of like
with everything in my life, really sort of progresses pretty quick.
I did my very short period of time in uniform,
went out and went real hard, Like I just wanted results, stats,
wanted to get my name. You know, we spoke about
Kane Richardson's story at the start of this Body.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
We did mention to him.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
You know, Kane spoke about how you want to in
the criminal world, do you want to get your name
out there? And you want to you know, be notorious
in that you know you're the guy. It's the same
in the police. Like I went out and you know,
I just wanted to be the guy that would get
the best results and that and you know, mix it
with the toughest blokes that were around.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So I did a couple of years on the beach
and then transferred to a country station.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
There was a news report that came out that said
the Smithon was going to be the Ice was the
Ice capital of Australia, and that's where more people were
on ice per per population per capita and that town
anywhere else.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
So I transferred up there. It wasn't really the case,
if I'm honest with it. I mean we had dealings
and interactions.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
But I could tell you there were far worse places
around the country.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I want to just I just want to pull you
back a bit there because and this is a question
I would hopefully like you to be able to answer
for us, because you touch on kin talking about being
the biggest and the badest criminal, and we know that
living that life. We rarely hear the side from an
ex officer whom speaks in that manner. Can you, just
(02:02):
for the listener, give us a little bit more in
depth into what do you mean.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
By being the biggest and badest? Well, I did say
you didn't say badest.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
No, I didn't use the serlogy.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
To a smart man, So I'm going to pull that back.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
But you know, to be the best at what your
job was entailed, how far would you go?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
What would you do? What were the you know, like,
were you're just locking up people? Is that a number?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Is it a stat you know, like pulling for one
hundred RBTs on a weekend, like give us a little
bit more insight to what it is that an officer
should do to get sort of into these next levels.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
A policing is a hierarchy structure, so you know, everything
from not only rank, but status in a police station
as well, right through to the actual positions.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So you know, you look at it.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
For me as a uniformed officer, you don't you don't
want to sit in uniform, and someone that probably sits
in uniform for an extensive periods of time, probably someone's
a bit complacent or you know, not really a bit
a hustler like I'm ature, like I'm here to get
shit done. So for me, I looked at aspirations to
want to be a detective in drug squad, and you
want to get involved in the adrenaline and the good side
(03:11):
of things and the hustle side of things. So you know,
you can't just be gifted jobs like that. You've got
to earn them. And so you've got to be known
as a person that goes out and gets drug siezures
off the streets.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
You've got to be working in hotspots.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
You know, Policing is like any career and it's like
any criminal type activity, and that is that when you
go out, you can choose to jump on the highway
and go for a drive and give out a couple
of speeding tickets, or you can choose we all know
who deals drugs in our communities, We're not oblivious to it.
So you can choose to go sit off his house
and roll everyone that comes in and out of it
(03:43):
and make it your impact that way. And so I'm
probably more inclined to the ladder in that, you know,
I chose to sit off known people that were trafficking
drugs in the community and people that you know, we'd
know where who would evade police. Like I'd rock up
to work every day. I couldn't think of anything worse
than given out a speeding fine. I'd rather be behind
a car chasing it in and evade, you know, getting
(04:06):
getting those types of results.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Like that's just sound on an American.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Bank robber encounter with a pistol and rob in the bank.
But the reality is that mindset, it's no different.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah, the reality is that you know, I mean I
was a young guy in nineteen twenty twenty one, twenty two.
You know, you've got a couple of few young blokes
or even a couple of older blokes on a shift
and you're all ras each other up, and you.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Does it ruffle the feathers though of some of the
actual other colleagues around. I mean, I know in club life,
you know, we talk about certain things about you know, structure,
and there's a hierarchy within the clubs as well. And
I'm not going to go into the in depth of
it all that I don't need to, and I'm sure
you're well aware of how it all structures, but you
definitely earn your stripes. And you know, for me, I
(04:49):
spent many years as a sergeant arms, so you know
that didn't come easy. You sort of don't have a
lot of friends sometimes along the way because people get
a little bit jealous. There's you know, there's the circle,
you have your inner circles sometimes and then there's people
on the outer that just throw the knives in the
back like it's just what happens. And I'm sure that
(05:10):
that would have been happening to you and the police
force at some stage.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
It had to have been in such a small environment.
Am I right or wrong?
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Oh, it's all applicable, like I think you know you can.
I can provide scenarios. The number one thing is it's
got to be you've got to be ethical, because the
moment you're not ethical, like you can go out and chase,
you can go out and get results, get outcomes, but
the moment you're not ethical about it, people will all
take it backwards.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Step.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
No one wants anything to do with someone who's dodgy
because it doesn't lead you anywhere. So the biggest thing
is one, you've got to be ethical, But two, you
then step into an area where so for instance, if
I'm sitting of a guy's house and then all of
a sudden the car pulls out, and you know that
there's gear in the car, you know that there's some
pretty well known crooks that are in the car. She's
(05:54):
on and if it's on on one person, and what
often happens is you drag everyone else in. And when
you drag everyone else in, that results and everyone else
getting paperwork.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Is that meaning for the action, there's a reaction, and
that's like a clusterfuck at times?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yeah, So you get involved in stuff that goes from
zero to hero really quick, and people sort of come
to work and they want to have a quiet shift
or they want to, you know, just go for a
cruisy drive, and all of a sudden you've just dragged
them into the absolute.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Shit show of what's going on.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
But my mentality has just always been if there's crooks
on the street, let's go get it, like let's I'm
here zero to hero every day. And there was a
group of guys that I worked with as well who
were really similar mindset, and I was lucky that I
was just on shift when I was young with guys
who had that mindset. It's like, let's go out and
let's hook in and really, you know, make an impact
(06:43):
in this town. But then there are also people that
you work with who you know, they don't like you
putting your name out and lights like that. They don't
want you to go out and rock the boat. They
you know, they just just let them do their thing,
and when they start to affect the general public, then
will step in, whereas me, I'm the sort of like, no, no,
let's let's rustle everyone's feathers.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Let's get rid.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
How's your attitude with that today?
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Just while I've got you on this right now, because
I want to just grab you on that You now
are the bloke that's going to go and help that
young person that's just being chased by the coppers that's
looking at doing a whack you know they've got in whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
However it's going down, it's going down. Like you just said,
just flip that coin, describe it from the other side.
Now you are that, you're that shadow now looking at
this arrest about to occur, and it's going to occur
to the young person that you know that you've worked with.
You know, he's family, you've put a lot of time
and effort in, you're passionate about, you really care about
and I know that you have to care about these
young people to do what you do today, because it's
(07:41):
just you can't do what you do without a genuine connection.
And look, yes, we can go through the proata of
you know, you cannot get emotionally invested into this.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Sort of work bullshit.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
If you're not emotionally invested in what you're doing when
it comes to helping others, and it's no different to
me or anybody else said there that you know is
in emergency or whatever you do, you will become emotionally
invested in a heartless fucking prick. Yeah, simple, And you
shouldn't be doing that if that's what it is. So
let's let's just flip that coin for a second. And
I just wanted to grab you in that moment. Yeah,
(08:14):
tell me, how do you see that? Right now?
Speaker 4 (08:17):
I'm telling you it's very relevant. I've never been asked
about this, so I probably don't.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Not a clink either, that's right here.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
So I think this plays a major factor weekly in that,
you know, we're trying to help this kid out.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
He's got like he's a known offender.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
He's on the street and the police like they you know,
there are some cops and they.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Absolutely harass the shit out of this kid.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
And you just think if you weren't around and you
didn't bloody harass him, he wouldn't have got those three
or four offenses that you've forced him to. Like classic
ones are just offenses against police. Like, you know, the
biggest youth offender in Tazzy last year was an eleven
year old boy, one hundred and sixty four offenses in
six months, you know, and he's a recivitis recivitust defender,
and we've reduced his offending down. I'd say to zero
(09:04):
seid since July. But the police will still He'll walk
down the street, the police will pull over and they'll
you know, there'll be some type of antagonizing going on
and you'll tell me if you.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
And he's charged with.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
And I'm on the fence made because I did that.
Like I'm like, mate, I know this guy is going
to go out and he's going to do something wrong.
So let's pull over and let's be a bit proactive
here and have a chat to him.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
And if you so to speak to get a.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Reaction, I think poking the bear, but in an appropriate way.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
If I just pull over to have a chat to
someone and he starts abusing me, well that's on him.
But the reality for me as I see that is,
you know, as long as I'm not been an asshole
about it and I'm not antagonizing him, because there are
cops that do do that as well.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
There are cops that pull over and go, you know,
what's going on to kid, and then you know they're.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Trying to incite something. I'm not about that and never
have been. But but I I can align now with
the focus that when we look at trying to actually
create stories of redemption which is literally my job is.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
I'm trying to create redemption for young people.
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