Sir John Alfred Smith QPM (born 21 September 1938) is a retired British police officer with the London Metropolitan Police. Smith was educated at St Olave's and St Saviour's Grammar School in Orpington, Kent. He served with the Irish Guards from 1959 to 1962 and then joined the Metropolitan Police as a constable. In 1973 he was in charge of the Obscene Publications Squad and by 1979 he was a Detective Chief Superintendent and head of the Drugs Squad at Scotland Yard. In 1980 he was promoted to Commander and took over "P" District in Bromley and Lewisham. In 1981 he transferred to Surrey Constabulary as Deputy Chief Constable, but in 1984, along with David O'Dowd and Wyn Jones, he was one of a trio of young provincial rising stars who were appointed to the rank of deputy assistant commissio