Lock Haven Gets Its First Permanent Female Police Chief

LOCK HAVEN – It is official: The city’s acting Police Chief, Kristin Smith, is now the permanent chief.

City Manager Greg Wilson gave Smith a glowing recommendation to city council Monday night, recommending her to assume permanent status after serving as interim chief since December of last year. She had assumed the interim position following former chief Keith Kibler’s resignation after he was elected a district judge.

A State College native who has been employed at the local police department for 16 years, Smith is the ranking member of the force. She started her Lock Haven career as a patrolman and moved up the ranks, to corporal to detective sergeant and then to chief, the first woman to hold the latter post in Lock Haven history.

She received her chief’s badge from Mayor Bill Baney after council unanimously approved the appointment. She said she was “happy and honored to be in this position to serve in this capacity to better the department and the city.”

Smith earned a Bachelor of Science degree in administration of justice, with a minor in sociology, from Penn State University and soon after joined the Police Academy at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and then the Lock Haven force. Smith and her husband Derrick live in Mill Hall with their 6-month-old daughter Lydia.