For 30 years Alan Smith, now head of investigations at COMET, served in the police before turning his attention to industrial investigations.
Smith sat down with Energy Voice Aberdeen features lead, Ryan Duff, to discuss his career in the police, his shift to the private sector and how his approach to investigations had to change when he left law enforcement.
“I knew instinctively that when my police career came to an end that I was going to move into the world of industry investigations,” said Smith.
The self-proclaimed “career investigator” joined what was then called Grampian Police where he became a detective. Investigating incidents in the North Sea fell under his remit while in the police, something that set him up for a life in industrial investigations.
One incident that Smith investigated while with the police was the capsize of the Bourbon Dolphin off the coast of Shetland in 2007.
The vessel was on the Chevron field when it run into trouble that resulted in the deaths of eight people, including captain Oddne Arve Remoy and his 14-year-old son David Remoy.
The fact that a 14-year-old was onboard the vessel shocked local police at the time, however, it was a Norwegian custom for the captain to bring their son onto their vessel. This lesson has stayed with Smith as he investigates incidents in other parts of the world that have different cultures to that of the UK.
Moving from law enforcement to investigating industrial accidents required a change in mindset for Smith, he explained.
“A criminal investigation is absolutely all about blame, it’s all about guilt, it’s all about getting the person responsible and bringing them to justice,” Smith explained.
“Whereas in industry, it’s the polar opposite… you want to understand what and why the incident happened but you’re not looking to attribute individual blame or guilt because there’s no place in that.”
Smith’s career post-police work has taken him to various places around the globe to investigate a range of incidents. To listen to Alan Smith’s full conversation with Energy Voice, click here.
