About the author
Jonathan D Smith OBE BSc. CPM Dip.Crim. is a former Commissioner of Police and Progressive Labour Party Government Senator who works in the business sector in Bermuda. His business interests include the National Storage Co., consisting of three industry-leading storage companies, real-estate ownership and investment, and a secure document destruction and recycling facility. Among his former political and community-service posts, he served as the Junior Minister for National Security (2011-2012) and served on the Immigration Board, Public Service Commission, Defence Board and as a Trustee of the National Sports Centre. He is a current member of the Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission and the Telecommunications Commission.
Mr. Smith has considerable management and security-sector related experience, having worked in senior Police management positions since the early 1990’s and trained at the prestigious Bramshill Staff College in Hampshire, UK and at the Canadian Police College in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His considerable experience with intelligence, security services and law enforcement agencies was derived from training and professional relationships with the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration and London’s Metropolitan Police. In Bermuda, he chaired the operational meetings of the Emergency Measures Organisation (EMO) and received letters of appreciation from the Governor, the Premier and special recognition from the House of Assembly for his role in chairing the EMO in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA and the deadly-Hurricane Fabian in 2003. He served as co-chair of the joint UK-US White Collar Crime Investigative Team based in Miami, as chairman of the Firearms Working Group for the UK Caribbean Overseas Territories and second Vice-President of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police from 2003-2005.
He is credited with developing the first Community-based, problem-solving Policing strategy for the Bermuda Police Service in 2000-2001, reforming the Police Service structure through functional divisions, creation of intelligence-led policing through the new Intelligence Division; formation of the first Police Support Units; procurement of significant new funding for the Emergency Response Teams; and the procurement of new funding, for five consecutive years, via a business-case methodology for operational, equipment and staffing increases for the Service; a highly successful Inspection of the Service in 2003. He holds a Management Studies degree from the University of Maryland, USA and a Diploma in Criminology and Police Studies from the University of Cambridge and many professional course certifications from his years in law enforcement.
Island Flames is his second major non-fiction book. His first book, “In the Hour of Victory,” ( www.inthehourofvictory.com ) the true story of Major AF ‘Toby’ Smith’s WWII experiences and death in battle was published in 2011. The documentary film version of the book won major awards at international film festivals in the UK and USA in 2013. Mr. Smith is completing two further books: 'Island Fever' - the story of Bermuda's pandemic experience, and 'Island Crimes' which looks at policing in Bermuda from the 1970’s to the current day.