Jackie Smithson is a retired Police Officer who spent most of his career at the Broken Arrow (OK) Police Department. He began his law enforcement career as a Reserve Deputy with the Cherokee County (OK) Sheriff’s Office. From there, he became a Police Officer for the City of Hulbert, OK. In 1999, Smithson joined the Broken Arrow Police Department where he was assigned to the Uniform Patrol Division, Traffic Specialist Unit, and the Crime Scene Unit.

Smithson spent 19 years as a Crime Scene Investigator for the Broken Arrow Police Department. He was charged with operating the agency’s ASCLD/LAB accredited laboratory until it was closed in 2014 and was the primary training officer for the Crime Scene Unit. Additionally, Smithson is an ANAB (formerly ASCLD/LAB) Technical Assessor in the forensic disciplines of latent prints, serial number restoration, and crime scene investigation. 

Smithson served as the Membership Chairman of the Association for Crime Scene Reconstruction and served on the State of Oklahoma Forensic Science Improvement Task Force. He served on the executive board of the Oklahoma Division of the International Association for Identification for 12 years with 4 of those years being the President of the Association.   Smithson is a Certified Crime Scene Investigator through the International Association for Identification.

Smithson has extensive training in crime scene investigation, fingerprint analysis, forensic video analysis, and serial number restoration. Smithson was the first municipal police officer in the State of Oklahoma to attend the University of Tennessee’s National Forensic Academy. He has also attended the Oklahoma City Police Department’s Technical Investigations School and CLEET ’s Criminal Investigation Academy among many other advanced crime scene schools in crime scene documentation, trajectory analysis, crime scene reconstruction, and bloodstain pattern analysis. Smithson has provided expert witness testimony in the disciplines of crime scene reconstruction, fingerprint comparison, and the use of trajectory rods.

Smithson is a published author, having co-authored sub-chapter 9.4, Drones, in Crime Scene Photography, 3rd Edition, by Edward Robinson. Smithson co-authored an article in the Journal of Emergency Medical Service on Emergency Medical Services in the Crime Scene (2020).  He also has a published thesis on collecting trajectories from soil. 

Smithson holds a Master of Science Degree from Northeastern (Oklahoma) State University, where he is also an Adjunct Professor in the Criminology, Justice Studies, and Global Security department. Additionally, he has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith in the Criminal Justice Department, where he is assisted with converting traditional hands-on crime scene courses to online courses where students still get the experience of traditional hands-on but in a virtual environment.

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