‘Harassment’ or dog walk? Why Lakewood police chief called cops on his neighbors
A not-so neighborly dispute on the Lakewood police chief’s street last year involving a resident’s routine of walking her dog with a flashlight led to the deployment of a police surveillance van and warnings to avoid a lot next to the chief’s property.
Chief Patrick Smith’s neighbors have changed where and when they walk the pup, but they wonder why resolving the situation required the days-long use of a police van with a secret camera and an officer showing up at their door rather than a chat on the sidewalk.
Smith said he thought what was happening might be a burglary attempt, and the way the situation was handled had the desired outcome. He hasn’t had any issues with neighbors since.
“Sometimes you have to take necessary measures considering it was something that was very persistent,” Smith told The News Tribune last week.
Police set up the van after Smith reported in January 2024 he was being harassed in the middle of the night by a woman from across the street who, according to a police report, would shine a flashlight into his house while standing in the empty lot south of his home.
The special-operations van maintained surveillance on his street over a weekend, but it was in the wrong spot, so police redeployed it in a different location in the neighborhood near Chambers Creek. For four to five days, a camera faced Smith’s house, but investigators didn’t see anything.
When Smith again saw a person outside his house the evening of March 19, 2024, he summoned a police officer. The couple who lived across the street, a 43-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man, denied going into others’ yards or shining a flashlight in houses when they were questioned by the officer. The woman explained she works at 5 a.m., and she walks their dog with a light when she gets up a couple hours earlier.
The woman and her husband have been granted anonymity because they are fearful of retaliation for speaking to the newspaper. The husband is a sex offender who pleaded guilty in 2006 to first-degree child rape and later served nearly six years in prison.
The woman said she was shocked when the officer appeared at her door, and she wasn’t aware it was the city’s top law enforcement officer who had called him there, or that they lived in the same neighborhood. No arrests were made in the case, and no charges were filed against the couple.
“For me, it’s like, if you have an issue with a neighbor, you go and you talk to them,” the woman said. “So why would this person send an officer to my house?”
Chief Smith, neighbors give their explanations
Smith, 51, said his house had been vacant for some time before he moved in — it was built about a year before it was purchased in 2023 — and because of that there were times when people would park in his driveway or walk up to it thinking it was still for sale.
The night of the police response, Smith said, he watched as a person came to the side of his home and shined a light into the first and second story. He said he called for an officer to let them know someone lived there and to tell them to “knock it off.”
“I didn’t know if this was someone trying to burglarize my home,” Smith told The News Tribune. “I didn’t know if this was a squatter. I didn’t know what actions these people were taking, and as chief of police, I didn’t know if I was being targeted individually.”
Smith was hired as chief of the Lakewood Police Department in March 2023 to replace retiring Chief Mike Zaro. He has more than 34 years of law enforcement experience and came from Birmingham, Alabama, where he was police chief from 2018 to 2022. He resigned that year to focus on “personal matters,” several Alabama media outlets reported at the time.
His resignation came almost a year after he received a vote of no confidence from the leaders of the Fraternal Order of Police lodge, citing increasing crime and violence against police officers.
Abutting Smith’s property is an empty lot that hugs the west side of his house and winds around to the south of it. In it are a few trees and a grassy field. His neighbors said others often use it to play fetch with their dogs. No one maintains it, according to them, except another neighbor who has taken it upon himself to mow.
While Smith’s neighbors were questioned by police, the woman’s husband mentioned they walk their dog in the field, but he denied wanting to keep an eye on anyone who lives nearby. The police officer left but returned about 10 minutes later, according to body-camera footage. He told the husband to not go on the lot “to avoid anything getting worse,” telling the man that it was private property.
According to Pierce County property records, the lot does not belong to Smith.
Smith’s neighbors now avoid walking anywhere near his house. The woman said she tries to avoid walking across the field unless she absolutely has to — such as when her dog barks at another dog outside.
Asked about his neighbors’ explanation that they were walking their dog, Smith said he would have accepted it as reasonable if he hadn’t watched a person come “within five feet” of his window. He said he came to his front door and saw the person run across the street and back into their home.
Police reports describe the person as the woman living across the street from Smith. In an interview, her husband said he walked the dog that evening before police responded at about 8:45 p.m. Temperatures were about 50 degrees, according to Weather Underground, and the husband said he was wearing shorts and he ran across the street to get back to his house.
Lakewood city manager stands by Smith
Lakewood City Manager John Caulfield stood by Smith in a written statement. Caulfield said the chief let him know someone was shining a bright light into the windows of his home late at night and that it happened more than once.
“The follow up was handled like any other residential complaint and the police were contacted to investigate,” Caulfield said. “The police response to include surveillance is at the discretion of the officers conducting the investigation. To date, there have been no further complaints.”
Smith’s neighbors scoffed at the idea that another Lakewood resident would get a similar response if they called police about an issue with their neighbor.
“I think they would laugh at them,” the woman said.
The couple came to suspect the police chief sent an officer to their door after reviewing their Ring security camera footage. They saw a person standing in their driveway at about the same time the officer arrived. After the police officer left, they said, their footage showed him park behind that person’s home. They later found in property records that the house belonged to Smith.
It wasn’t until they were contacted by The News Tribune that the couple learned police reports showed surveillance had been placed in their neighborhood, too. The woman called it an abuse of authority and wondered at how much money the surveillance cost.
“That just shows no trust for your neighborhood or your community, or that you’re taking any chance of, oh, I don’t know, just building relationships with people first,” the woman said. “Being a part of the community, getting to know people. Because that would probably solve half the issues.”
Smith said he didn’t order the surveillance. In a police report, an officer wrote that he offered to put a camera in the area to try to catch the person “in the act” and determine if there was malicious intent.
Smith told The News Tribune he didn’t speak to the neighbors before there was police action. He said he didn’t think it was a good idea to personally go to their door, saying it was best if someone else explained everything to the neighbors.
“The reason the surveillance was there is that they thought it might be a burglary attempt or something of that nature,” Smith said. “The last thing that I want to do is have to take some form of action to defend myself or my home.”
Smith’s neighbor said she would have been open to changing her routine for walking her dog if she had been approached about the issue as a neighbor.
The woman said they have coyotes and deer in the area, and she tries to check for them when she takes the dog out. She added that Smith made a lot of assumptions instead of getting to know the community around him.
“Now I don’t know how you move forward with that, or even to build a neighborly relationship with somebody after they’ve called the police on you,” she said.
This story was originally published May 12, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
