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Retired Coral Gables Police Officer Danny Smith has been named to the Florida Police Officer’s Hall of Fame. He is the first officer from the Coral Gables Police Department to have the honor bestowed upon him. The enshrinement ceremony will take place in Tallahassee at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement headquarters on May 18th.
This is not Smith’s first rodeo, however. He was inducted into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 in honor of his being named the Most Valuable Player in the 1982 College Baseball World Series, when UM won the National Championship after a stunning five game run during which Smith was a magician as a left-handed relief pitcher.
“When I got the phone call from Governor DeSantis’ office that I was being inducted into the Florida Police Hall of Fame, I had tears in my eyes,” says Smith. “After more than 30 years as a police officer, it’s a phenomenal honor. I know many officers just as worthy of being selected. The ceremony is taking place on my mother’s 84th birthday, so it’s all the more special.”
Over the course of his career, which began as a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper, Smith worked in multiple capacities, serving as a DUI enforcement officer (where he once made four DUI arrests in one night), field training officer and traffic homicide investigator, among other roles. He trained hundreds of Coral Gables officers, four of whom are now majors in the department.
“I’m proud of the fact that I was able to do so many different things in the 30 years I spent in uniform,” he says.
He’s not the only one who is proud.
“It is my great honor to announce that our first ever Coral Gables Police Officer has been selected by Governor DeSantis and the Cabinet to be forever remembered into the State of Florida Police Officers Hall of Fame,” said Coral Gables Chief of Police Edward J. Hudak, Jr. “Officer Danny Smith who recently retired was selected for induction after being nominated by law enforcement executives and peers alike. Congratulations to Danny on his entire career for the thousands of people that he has touched and lives he has changed and saved. I am honored to call him a colleague, classmate and friend. There is no truer example of what a “Gables Cop” exemplifies.”
Jim Morris, the legendary former University of Miami baseball coach, called Smith to congratulate him on his latest honor. Morris knows a little something about halls of fame. He is a University of Miami Sports Hall of Famer and a College Hall of Famer himself.
And if Smith wasn’t busy enough as a police officer, he spent almost 20 years as the Head Baseball Coach at Palmetto Senior High School. These days, he is enjoying his free time watering the plants and feeding the hummingbirds in his new home in Las Vegas, where he recently moved with his wife Danielle.
“Retirement is an adjustment and I’m going to get a new job soon. I’m not putting on a uniform or a gun belt, though, Smith says with a laugh. “My wife Dani spent 40 years managing the Nick Waddell State Farm office in Pinecrest. Now, she runs a State Farm office near our new home. Every day, I take her lunch…I’m an Uber Eats driver with one customer.”
Dozens of Smith’s family, friends and former police colleagues will be caravanning to Tallahassee to see him be honored on May 18th by Governor DeSantis, himself a former Yale baseball player.
