Dale Smith (The Bill)

Inspector Dale Smith
Alex Walkinshaw as Insp. Smith
The Bill character
Portrayed by	Alex Walkinshaw
Duration	1999-2001, 2003-10
First appearance	20 July 1999
Last appearance	31 August 2010
Introduced by	Richard Handford (1999) Paul Marquess (2003)
Classification	Final; regular
Profile
Occupation	Police Officer
Mother Pauline Smith

Dale "Smithy" Smith is a fictional character played by Alex Walkinshaw in the British police procedural television series, The Bill. He first appeared in 1999 as a police constable, and eventually became inspector.

Smith first arrived at Sun Hill police station as a police constable (PC), having served with the Queen's Royal Fusiliers. He later left Sun Hill to take up a position in the Specialist Firearms Command (then known as SO19), but returned two years later as a sergeant. In 2009 he was promoted to inspector after Rachel Weston took up a position with Superintendent John Heaton's People Trafficking Unit.

In 2001 Smith left Sun Hill because he felt that the many new rules Superintendent Tom Chandler was introducing prevented him from enforcing the law. When Sergeant Bob Cryer, who had also served with the Fusiliers, encouraged him to pursue his ambition to become an armed police officer and gave him the highest possible grading, Smith submitted his SO19 application.

Meanwhile, Smith and PC Nick Klein were frequently called out to the home of Frank Kennedy, an elderly man whose house was continually being vandalized by youths. Kennedy accused the police of doing nothing about it and threatened to tackle the youths himself. To Nick’s surprise, Smith showed sympathy towards Kennedy, as he suspected property developers were paying youths to harass residents that were refusing to move, like Kennedy.

On one such call-out, Smith and Klein found that Kennedy had shot a young intruder dead. Klein's report to Chandler led to an allegation that Smith had encouraged Kennedy to take the law into his own hands. Believing he had lost his chance to get into SO19, Smith assaulted Nick, accusing him of being a grass and showing no loyalty. Consequently, Smith was suspended from duty.