An officer comes home.

Byline: PEOPLE By Rebecca Nolan The Register-Guard

Down the hall from Lt. Randy Smith's new office at the Lane County Sheriff's Office hangs a portrait of his father,

Carlton Smith, who was killed during a traffic stop on his first night as a sheriff's deputy.

Randy Smith was 6 when his father was shot seven times on July 6, 1965, and died beside his patrol car on Delta Highway.

But his father's death did not deter him from pursuing a life in law enforcement.

In August, after 15 years with the Eugene Police Department, Smith gave up a prime post as a sergeant in charge of the special investigations unit and joined the sheriff's office as a patrol lieutenant.

Now Smith wakes up each morning and puts on the same uniform his father and stepfather once wore. Daily, he walks past his father's portrait and those of other Lane County deputies who died in the line of duty.

"It means a lot for me to wear this uniform," Smith, 47, said during a recent interview in his office decorated with memorabilia from a life spent fighting crime.

A photo of Smith dressed in full riot gear making an arrest during a street protest hangs beside a commendation from his days on Eugene's Metro SWAT team. A shelf holds photos of his family, including his wife, Eugene police Detective Julie Smith, and his brother Donny Smith, a former Eugene police officer who died in 1998, seven years after contracting viral meningitis likely while searching a van at a Grateful Dead show at Autzen Stadium.

For Smith, joining the sheriff's office was a shrewd career move and a homecoming.

Smith wants one day to become chief of a small-town police department. To do so, he needs experience beyond a sergeant's level. But competition is tough for Eugene police promotions. And even after 15 years with the agency, Smith wasn't sure he'd be selected.

So when he saw in the newspaper that the sheriff's office was hiring two lieutenant positions, he applied.

"I knew this might be an opportunity I shouldn't pass up, since there were no guarantees that I'd get lieutenant at Eugene. I'd always had a fondness for the sheriff's office."

Smith's stepfather is former sheriff's deputy Bob Perdue, who retired in 1999 after a long career.

"For me to retire out of the sheriff's office would be special for me," Smith said. "I grew up knowing a lot of the people here."

Smith left the Eugene department on Friday, Aug. 5, and started at the sheriff's office Monday morning, Aug. 8.

Since then, the learning curve's been steep. He's now responsible for $7 million worth of patrol programs and oversees 19 deputies, as well as the traffic team, detectives and the weighmaster unit.

"People have bent over backwards to welcome me here," he said. "It's been a very smooth transition. I'm learning things I would not have had the chance to learn in Eugene."

The one negative is the lack of resources at the sheriff's office, he said. "Compared to Eugene our resources are extremely limited," Smith said. "It's all call-driven. There's very little time to be proactive in law enforcement. That's the frustrating part."

Smith's first taste of police work came in 1982 when he joined the Junction City Police Department's reserve officer program. "I was hooked," he said. From there, he went on to the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office. He came to Eugene with his now ex-wife, who wanted to be closer to her family.

After all these years, Smith said he hasn't lost his love for police work.

"Even though law enforcement isn't always portrayed as a good thing, it is," Smith said. "There are so many good people that are dedicated to law enforcement. They really do want to do the right thing."

Smith recently learned that his father's killers, the infamous Carl Cletus Bowles and his accomplice, Wilfred Marion Gray, both had died in prison.

During a weeklong rampage, they raped a motel manager; robbed a bank and a motel; kidnapped nine people, including California's state finance manager, his wife and child; and killed 33-year-old father of four Carlton Smith one hour before his shift was to end.

Eight years later, Bowles escaped from custody, got into a gunfight with FBI agents and became the target of the largest manhunt in Eugene history.

Bowles was recaptured and died in prison on April 27, 2005.

Gray died in prison on Sept. 21, 2004. Smith had testified at Gray's parole hearing in 2002.

"I wasn't jumping up and down with joy that they died," Smith said. "I probably have some peace of mind knowing that neither of them will ever be outside prison walls where they can hurt someone else."

CAPTION(S):

Each workday, Lt. Randy Smith passes the portrait of his father, Carlton Smith, a Lane County deputy killed in the line of duty in 1965.