Superintendent

Kansas Highway Patrol Superintendent Colone Erik Smith

Colonel Erik Smith was appointed acting Superintendent of the Kansas Highway Patrol on July 7, 2023, by Governor Laura Kelly. Smith is a native of Ellsworth, Kan., and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Friends University in Wichita, Kan.  A chance encounter with a Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper serving in Ellsworth County in October of 1980 created an admiration for the agency which has only grown as he’s collaborated with members of the Kansas Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies throughout his career.

Colonel Smith began his law enforcement career in 1993 as a member of the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Department where he served for nine years. In 2002, he joined the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as a DEA Special Agent/Criminal investigator serving in the Minneapolis/St. Paul District Office. Over the next few years, Smith also served in the Wichita Resident Office investigating complex criminal investigations.

 In December 2011, Smith was promoted to Supervisory Special Agent in the Kansas City District Office, where he was responsible for the day-to-day enforcement operations and liaison activities with state and local law enforcement partners in the Kansas City and Jefferson City areas.

From December 2016 to May of 2018, Smith served as Inspector for the Office of Professional Responsibility at DEA HQ in Arlington VA. where he conducted and managed internal, administrative, and criminal investigations related to DEA employee misconduct.

In 2018, Smith returned to the Midwest to serve as Assistant Special Agent in Charge at the Kansas City District Office, where he led more than 130 special agents, intelligence analysts, contractors, and law enforcement support personnel across the four Kansas and four Western Missouri posts of duty. He served in that capacity until his appointment to the Senior Executive Service (SES) in December 2020, and was initially assigned to the Houston Division, where he led the DEA’s enforcement, intelligence, and administrative activities in the Houston, Galveston, and Beaumont offices as the Deputy Special Agent in Charge.

In November 2021, he was named as the DEA’s Chief Inspector, where he oversaw the three offices that make up the Inspection Division: the Office of Professional Responsibility, the Office of Inspections, and the Office of Security Programs. Together these offices comprise the DEA’s integrity system and provide innovative support to DEA Headquarters and field offices.  Smith retired from DEA and returned to Kansas on June 30, 2023.