Al Smith began his law enforcement career in 1978 with the Polk County Florida Sheriff's Office. He served as a patrol deputy, criminal investigator assigned to investigate crimes against property, white collar crimes and crimes against persons, and as an undercover agent in the Intelligence Unit.

For almost 10 years, he taught police recruits and in-service officers at the Polk Community College Police Academy in areas including technical report writing, crimes against persons, crimes against property, intelligence gathering techniques and sources of information.

In 1989 he formed an investigative agency specializing in criminal defense and information retrieval. He has been appointed by judges in the 10^th Judicial Circuit on dozens of occasions to assist defense counsel in the investigation of major crimes, including murder, robbery, kidnapping and sexual battery.

Al earned his AS in Police Science, from Polk Community College in 1977, and attended the Baccalaureate program at St. Leo College in 1978.