Richard C. Smith, Sr prior to retirement from the Baltimore Police Department, was the supervisor of the K-9 Training Unit. In that capacity, he was responsible for the basic K-9 training, scent and maintenance training for both Drug Detection and Explosive Detection Dogs. During his tenure there, he oversaw the training and certification of 36 internal and allied agency teams. He has previously been certified as an academic instructor by the Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commission.

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Richard holds a master’s degree from The Johns Hopkins University Public Safety Leadership Program, a Graduate Certificate in Higher Learning also from The Johns Hopkins University. He is published in The Journal of Gang Research, Volume 9, Number 4, Summer 2002.

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Richard has been involved in Search and Rescue since 2020. Since joining the Western Maryland K-9 Search and Rescue team, he has completed NASAR (National Association of Search and Rescue) SARTECH III, FUNSAR/SARTECH II, and Managing the Lost Person Incident. has been an instructor at and attended Kentucky Scent Trailing Air and Rescue seminar 2021 thru 2025. He has instructed or assisted in instructing over 15 trailing dog teams in scent article acquisition, proper handling techniques and other skills related to working a scent discriminating trailing dog in both woodland and urban environments.

 

He has been authorized to evaluate trailing teams by Kentucky Scent Trailing Air and Rescue since 2021 and is certified by the National Association of Search and Rescue as a Level I trailing handler. Additionally, he is a Lead Evaluator for Trailing and Land HRD by the National Association of Search and Rescue.

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Richard was part of the first All-Search Apprentice Instructor Program for Human Remains Detection cohort. He has a 5-year-old Belgian Malinois, certified in Human Remains Detection – Land. His apprentice instructing assignments included Mason Dixon Search Dogs advanced seminar and All-Search Burn Seminar.