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12 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday August 13, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Living Oakville Beaver LIVING EDITOR: ANGELA BLACKBURN By Hiba Kesebi SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Phone: 905-845-3824, ext. 248 Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: angela@oakvillebeaver.com Long-time cop turns interior designer S he sat on the coffee shop's leather chair with her back straight, her head held high, her aura indicating confidence and strength. She was a police officer. When she started talking though, it became clear she knows about colour, art, and decorating. She is an interior decorator now. Heather Clark Smith decided on a career shift that most people would deem as drastic. She went from being a 30-year veteran police officer with the, then, Metropolitan Police force to the owner of Heather Clark Smith Design, an interior decorating company. The shift, according to Smith, happened naturally. "I like to shop and I've always had an interest in it," said Smith, adding that this passion led her to taking design courses at Sheridan College, Humber College and the International Academy of Design and Technology, while still pursuing policing. Smith's drastic career shifts however, started long before 2005, the year she graduated from Sheridan College with honors. In fact, it started when she was 16, a student at T.A. Blakelock High school and an employee at K-mart. She had always been keen on pursuing biochemistry, because that was what her birth father did. But a camping trip to Turkey Point, when she was 16 years old, changed everything. Smith, recalled that she and her work friends had planned a camping trip and like most camping outings, they met new people and had fun together. "We made friends and partied with the people who were camping beside us," she smiled. "When we came home, we never thought anything different of it. But a couple of weeks later, the Haldimand Norfolk Police came knocking on the door and wanted our assistance in identifying them (the people with whom they partied in camp)." It turned out, the two men that Smith and her friends met at camp were part of a Montreal robbery gang and they had weapons in the trunk of their car. "The police wanted us to help them find where they were," Smith said. While Smith didn't have to testify because she was only 16, she still had go to court. "I decided then that this is what I want to do." Smith got a summer job with the Halton police, and was able to later on, land a placement with them for a six-month period where she worked on an on-and-off basis. Eventually this led her to a job as a police dispatcher with the Peel Regional Police, and in 1980 she was finally hired by the Metropolitan Police, now known as the Toronto Police Service. She was assigned to 23 Division in Toronto. "With a young son at home, a full-time job and daily commute, I had little time to do more than dabble in interior decorating, but I had a plan and in January of 2008 I executed it." Heather Clark Smith CHRIS KORNACKI / OAKVILLE BEAVER CAREER CHANGE: Heather Clark Smith has switched directions, heading into a career as an interior designer after a 30-year career as a police officer in Toronto. According to Smith, she met and worked with terrific people in this division, however, it was a quiet neighborhood and she wanted more excitement. That's why she switched to 31 Division, which covers the Jane and Finch area. "I worked with foot patrol for a very short period of time, then went to the detective office, then went to drug squad and worked undercover there. Her hard work paid off in 1989 because she received a promotion, after a mere nine years of working with the Metropolitan police. "In that time period, to be a female and get promoted in that short time was not common. Now it is, but it wasn't then," said Smith. "I mean it was obviously a different time, where acceptance is gained through mutual respect, it wasn't a given ... I had to show that I had to work for it." "I appreciate those times for what they were. And I think there's a lot of value that can be added to doing the job right and being accepted based on how you do the job, versus just because you are a woman," she added. Smith went on to work with the sexual assault squad for two-and-a-half years, investigating assaults on men and women. "Off and on during this, I was taking design courses," she noted. After the sexual assault squad, Smith worked with the fraud squad -- the last placement she worked in as a police officer. "We put together a way of doing business that was beneficial to our clients, who are victims of fraud. We made it easier for them to report and get the information that they needed in order to put their documents together," recalled Smith. In her third year with the squad, Smith had her first child and in 2002 she attended the continuing education program at Sheridan College on a full-time basis. She graduated from Sheridan College with honours in 2005. Today, Smith is the owner of Heather Smith Design, previously called, home d'yzne. "With a young son at home, a full-time job and daily commute, I had little time to do more than dabble in interior decorating," Smith explained, "but I had a plan and in January of 2008 I executed it." Smith left policing and decided to fully devote herself to her business. "After several years of hearing `design' mispronounced (with the title home d'zyne), I decided to take ownership of my business and my promise of honesty, integrity and a devotion to a high level of customer service, by renaming my company, Heather Clark Smith Design," she said. Since then, Smith has had no regrets. "I worked for 30 years and always had a boss, so I wanted to try being my own boss." According to the interior designer, however, the skills that she's learned from policing are coming in handy with her design business as well. "I believe that things should be transparent, police are forced to be transparent by all the rules they operate under," she said. "That's how I conduct myself (with her business). Everyone knows what I'm going to do. There's no hidden costs, or I forgot to tell you that. Everything is in writing." When meeting with a client, Smith takes notes of decorations that should stay, be moved, or thrown out. She also makes sure to ask what type of decorations the client is looking for, what their interests are and what are the things that they can't do without. She makes sure to document all these things in writings, through charts that she created. "I have a chart and I document everything from vase to plants," she said. "That's another thing I learned with policing, how to take good, accurate notes," she laughed. Smith also stressed she doesn't do anything before her clients sign off the papers that outline what the decoration plan will be. Smith also believes providing clients with choice is always key. "I will always show you two chairs, and you can decide which you one you like," she explained, adding that having more than two choices can be overwhelming, and that's why she always sticks to two. While people continue to ask her why she left her policing career, Smith is confident that she made the right decision. "Everyone asks why did you leave, didn't you like it? I loved it. But I believed it is important to leave on a high note as opposed to staying too long and hating it." Smith noted that she sees policing as a younger person's job. "There's a lot of stress, your hours are all over the place. So I didn't see myself doing it past 50." "It's a win-win for me," said Smith. "Being able to leave at this age, spend more time with my son, do what I really like to do, and I can hopefully bring my level of common sense, gut feeling from policing with me to build my business," she smiled.