Raquel Smith (’23) always knew a desk job wasn’t in her future. She thrives on being outside and doing a variety of activities with a dash of spontaneity, and that’s exactly what she’s found working nights for the Black Mountain Police Department.
“I wanted something that’s always changing. Criminal justice and law enforcement is always changing,” expressed Smith. “You may be in a car for 12 hours, but your desk is always moving, and you never know what’s going to happen. You have to quickly make critical thinking choices that could affect somebody’s life, and they could affect your life as well.”
She doesn’t even mind working the graveyard shift.
“I thought I wouldn’t like night shifts, but I really have enjoyed them, and I don’t want to work days anytime soon,” she said. “You’re able to be more proactive and look for people being suspicious. It sounds terrible, but you get to deal with a lot more of the people actually doing crime. Crime obviously can be committed anytime, but there are different experiences at night.”
Officer Smith’s vigilance in the community has not gone unnoticed. In her first year and a half with a full-time job, she’s already been named Officer of the Month four times, most recently after a stretch that included six DWI arrests and two major trafficking arrests involving large amounts of methamphetamine and fentanyl. In one case, she seized enough fentanyl to potentially kill the entire community of Black Mountain.
While the accolades are appreciated, Smith is content to simply help people in the community.
“I just want to keep doing good so that I can eventually do great,” she said. “It feels rewarding to get a drunk or drugs off the street.”
One of the causes closest to her heart is stopping drunk driving, a passion she traces back to Britten Olinger, a former assistant cross country coach at Montreat College, who became a quadriplegic after being hit by a drunk driver in a serious accident in 2017.
“I’ve pulled over people who’ve been drinking and driving, and I’ll tell them about Coach Olinger,” she said. “It’s crazy how people can be so selfish and think they’re OK to be driving after consuming an amount of alcohol that would place them over the legal limit. They can change somebody’s life in an instant, whether it’s their own or their somebody else’s.”
A native of Altamonte Springs, a northern suburb of Orlando, Smith attended The Geneva School, a classical Christian high school with ties to Montreat College. An accomplished athlete, she was given the female Excelsior Award for her athletic ability and character during her senior year. Her parents encouraged her to look for small colleges that offered scholarship opportunities, and Montreat quickly rose to the top of her list. After connecting with cross country and track coaches, she signed to run for the Cavaliers.
Competing in cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track all four years in college, Smith became a reliable and consistent runner on a women’s team that climbed from unranked to a national contender. On the oval, she ran events ranging from the 800 meters to the 3K, including the challenging steeplechase.
“I really was thankful for all the experiences I had there,” she said.” I knew I wasn’t the fastest, but for certain events, I could be relied on. Unfortunately, my senior year, the first week of our practice, I ate a hurdle and I messed up my knee. It was a struggle for the rest of the season. That 2023 outdoor season, I got points for our team at the end of the season, but there were only seven girls in the steeplechase. It’s a really fun, hard race. That was definitely my favorite.”
Smith credits her coaches (Lewkowicz, Olinger, and Jason Scott) for shaping her both as an athlete and a person.
“Coach Lewk was very faith-focused and made sure we were not losing sight of our focus on Christ, while still being very competitive,” she said. “He and his wife really helped me grow over four years. His wife would host small groups, and it was really good having that foundation. It felt like a home away from home for me.”
Inside the classroom, Smith originally planned to pursue a degree in exercise science at Montreat College, an interest sparked by her experience working with a physical therapist after suffering a hamstring injury just days before the state track meet during her junior year of high school. However, her plans shifted during a return visit to campus when she met Dr. Robert Roth, the newly hired professor launching Montreat’s criminal justice program.
“I started doing AP Anatomy my senior year and loved it,” she said, “but I realized I didn’t want to study that for four more years or go to grad school for it. I really wanted to seek out truth anywhere and everywhere in my life, so I started looking into criminal justice. When Dr. Roth told me the criminal justice major would be available that fall, I switched my major that day.”
Her passion for law enforcement only grew during her time at Montreat College, where she learned from professors with real-world experience.
“I really think that Montreat having professors who have experienced law enforcement was a really big key factor that helped me want to keep doing it,” she said. “Dr. Roth was a proponent of wanting people to become cops, which at college nowadays, I feel like you rarely hear. He was really good at having discussions about political and current events that have shaped law enforcement.”
Those classroom conversations not only deepened her understanding of the field but also connected her studies to the complex realities of the profession and her faith.
“In this job, it’s hard if you don’t believe in somebody or something,” she said. “There’s a lot of stuff that you experience, and most of the time, God is the only thing that can get you through that situation. Having professors who are strong in their faith and strong in what they believe was very encouraging. If that’s what God’s calling is for us, then that is what we should do.”
By the time she graduated, Smith knew she was exactly where she was meant to be. During her senior year, she interned with the Black Mountain Police Department, a placement that soon became permanent. That internship led to her being hired and sent to Basic Law Enforcement Training, launching her career in the very same community where she had studied and grown.
As she continues to serve the Black Mountain community, Smith has also embraced a new opportunity to support local children. This year, the Black Mountain Police Department launched a new initiative to strengthen community engagement through a children’s book series. Smith illustrated the first book, while Adriana Stewart, a school resource officer, wrote the story. The book features real Black Mountain officers as characters and introduces children to the theme of “Stranger Danger” in a fun, accessible way. The department hopes the series will help young readers better understand safety and build trust with the officers who serve their town.
For Smith, the project has become another meaningful expression of why she chose this career. As she looks ahead, Smith remains focused on growing both personally and professionally. She approaches each day with humility, striving to learn from every experience and embody the values that shaped her at Montreat College.
“Going to Montreat really helped me to seek truth in every aspect of my life,” she said. “I just want to continue to learn. This job is always changing, and there are always things that you have to learn. I’m just trying to become the most well-rounded cop and person I can be, and I want to continue to grow in my faith, even if I don’t know what God has in store for me.”