CCJ Directory

Smoot provides consulting services to several state and local law enforcement agencies as well as private companies. He is a member of the Baltimore and Cleveland Police Departments’ consent decree monitoring teams and also serves as director of the Police Benevolent & Protective Association of Illinois and the Police Benevolent Labor Committee.

Smoot holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice Sciences from Illinois State University and a Juris Doctor degree from the Southern Illinois University School of Law, where he served as business editor of the SIU Law Journal. Smoot was a member of the Executive Session on Policing and Public Safety at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government from 2008 to 2014. Smoot also served as a police and public safety policy advisor to the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Teams. President Obama later appointed him to the Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

A nationally recognized subject matter expert on police-related topics such as Public Employment Labor Law, Pension & Benefits Law, Section 1983 Civil Rights Litigation, and Police Use of Force, Smoot has written articles for police publications and newsletters and speaks regularly at state, national, and international forums regarding community policing, public safety, and public employee labor issues. Smoot also serves as the Area 4 Vice President of the National Association of Police Organizations, an advocacy group representing over 250,000 police officers.

He has served on the Advisory Committee for the National Law Enforcement Officers’ Rights Center in Washington, D.C. since 1996 and was appointed in 2015 to the Illinois Commission on Police Professionalism. He serves on the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board (ILETSB) and previously served on ILETSB’s Use of Force Advisory Committee, Police Pursuit Advisory Committee, Racial Profiling Advisory Committee, and the Task Force on Police Integrity.

Smoot holds several certificates in Police Union Leadership from Harvard Law School. He has been repeatedly selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers & Rising Stars and has been recognized as one of the “Top Employment & Labor Attorneys in Illinois” by Chicago magazine. He was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court in June of 2011. Smoot and his family live in Leland Grove, IL, where he served as an elected alderman and the Police Commissioner for 12 years.