She was the 28th sheriff of Santa Clara County, California, serving from 1998 until her early retirement in 2022, before the end of jury deliberations in her civil trial.
[6][7] After Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr made a controversial decision not to prosecute on grounds of insufficient evidence in an alleged rape of a 17-year-old in San Jose in March 2007, Sheriff Smith declared the case "still open" and that she believed a sexual assault did occur.
[13] In 2012, there was controversy over Smith's assigning a bodyguard to Santa Clara County Supervisor George Shirakawa, Jr., who was ultimately convicted of misuse of funds and other crimes.
[19] On August 27, 2015, mentally-ill inmate Michael Tyree was beaten to death[20] by three jail guards who were convicted of second-degree murder in 2017.
[23] On June 5, 2018, Smith ran for re-election to her sixth term against five challengers including former undersheriff John Hirokawa and Deputy Joseph LaJeunesse.
[25] In 2019, The Mercury News, San Jose Inside, and other publications uncovered evidence that carrying a concealed weapon (CCW) permits may have been issued in a "pay-to-play" fashion to those who donated money to her campaign reelection funds.
[28] On December 14, 2021, Smith was indicted by a Santa Clara County civil grand jury on seven counts of corruption and misconduct.
[29] She retired early on October 31, 2022, before the end of jury deliberations in her public corruption trial,[30] and filed a motion to have the charges dropped, which was denied.