A 91-year-old police officer in Arkansas, the oldest police officer in the state, is still patrolling the streets — and has no plans to quit his job anytime soon.
Although he drives around in an unmarked police car, everyone knows L.C. “Buckshot” Smith’s name in Camden, where he patrols the streets of his hometown four days a week.
“This badge and gun don’t make you a police officer. You got to respect people,” Smith told CBS News.
Smith earned respect by working for more than four decades as a deputy with the Ouachita County Sheriff’s Department. Everyone called him by his childhood nickname “Buckshot.”
WUSA 9 reported Smith had the name “Buckshot” since he was 14 years old.
He retired after working for 46 years as a deputy, but it only lasted for five months.
Smith said he did not have fun during that time because he does not “hunt or fish.”
So when he was in his 80s, he applied to become a rookie cop in Camden. KFVS reported he has been with the department for the past ten years.
He is armed with a gun, but he does not use it.
“He knows your mama, and he knew your grandmother. So he has the authority to speak into our lives,” Mayor Julian Lott said.
Smith told CBS News he has “taken more people home than [taken] them to jail.”
Even at 91 years old, Camden Police Chief Boyd Woody said Smith has no plans to retire.
“He does not want to retire. In his words, to me, he’ll retire when the good Lord tells him to,” said Woody.
Smith turns 92 years old in May.