Caprice Smith was making a left down Biddle Street, when a mob of people swarmed the street, running towards her, away from an armed individual. Instead of following suit, Smith exited her car and ran in the opposite direction, following the aggressor down a back alley with her gun held at bay.

“It seemed like the thousand people just kind of disappeared, and it’s like tunnel vision,” Smith said. “We’re not thinking about ourselves, our safety. We are more interested in getting the bad guy because we want to make sure if you harm someone that you are going to justice.”

When criminal justice lecturer Caprice Smith retired as a detective from Baltimore City Special Investigations, her work environment changed drastically, from crime scenes to classrooms, yet her mission remained the same: to make a change in the world.

Through teaching and empowering younger generations, she not only encourages students to advocate for criminal justice, but to also advocate for themselves.

For third-year criminal justice major Malick Ebrima Beyai, Smith was an invaluable mentor and support system during his first year at Stevenson. Anxious about getting involved on campus, Beyai viewed joining Alpha Phi Sigma, the only nationally-recognized honor society for criminal justice, as highly implausible.

“In the back of my mind, I would always think about the GPA requirements that seemed high for someone like myself. [Smith] assured me that college is a clean slate and I would be able to work towards improving my grades because I’m going to school for something that I have an interest in,” Beyai said. “Moving onto my second year, I transitioned into the vice-president role of the Mu Psi chapter of Alpha Phi Sigma, something that I never envisioned for myself coming to college.”

Smith applies this mindset to not only her students, but her children as well. Second-year Liam Toriano Smith is working to expand his platform in media and music production. He attributes much of his motivation and support to his mom.

“I’m an entrepreneur right now. Seeing her go through being both an entrepreneur and her various careers has shown me that I can do it no matter what. There’s not gonna be a time where I won’t be able to get through something because of what I’ve seen her do,” Liam Smith said.

Smith initially joined the Baltimore City Police workforce in order to pay for college after graduating high school, which reimbursed her tuition at Coppin State University as long as she maintained an A average. On weekdays, Smith was a full-time student. On weekends, she policed the city.

Smith then went on to earn a master’s in education, a second master’s in philosophy, and her Ph.D.

“I could never stop schooling. It’s not even about the degrees for me; it’s about going as far as you can go with anything you do. And that means, you don’t have to be perfect, but you do have to at least try for excellence, because if you don’t, you don’t really serve your community the way you’re supposed to,” Smith said. “So for me, academics is everything. It’s the key to success. It’s the end to poverty, it’s the end to crime, it’s everything.”

Nearing the end of her policing career, Smith became wary of the many faults in our justice system. Witnessing endless cycles of violence and crime became exhausting. So her transition from police work to teaching college students was revitalizing.

“Being beside victims in courtrooms and seeing how aggressives were still let off and not held accountable, it was like, ‘oh, no, another broken system,’ I couldn’t do it,” Smith said. “But in education, where everyone’s so fresh and just open and interested in changing the world forreal– I was like, this is my happy place.”

Smith realized she could continue her impact on the world through her students.

“If I can make the younger generation realize that they can do it, they could be the change agent, and if that requires a PowerPoint presentation in a 50 minute class, I’ll do it,” Smith said. “So I remind the students, the only thing that matters is that they go out there and use their voice to somehow change the world.”

In her efforts to become a change agent in Baltimore, Smith created a platform on educating and empowering victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. She started a nonprofit with her husband called SharperMinds Consultants, through which she hosted educational workshops for teens, underserved communities and especially women.

“I turned my energy toward helping women make sense of the stories and the experiences that they had, and then tell their own stories,” Smith said. “That’s teaching how to use their personal voice to spread awareness for whatever their story is, and then telling that story just to help their community of people.”

Among her multiple publications, Smith also wrote a book titled Uncuffed, in which she uses her experience interacting with sex offenders and abusers, to teach women how to find their own power and purpose.

Unfortunately, listening to so many victims’ narratives of abuse and carrying these emotional burdens home took a toll on her mindset.

“It really, in some ways, desensitized my response. You get used to seeing so much, but the frustration that comes with seeing so much over and over and over again… And those cycles repeating, you’re like, ‘come on, something has to give,’” Smith said.

In order to cope with the weight of these stressors, Smith learned to compartmentalize.

“I’ve been very particular in keeping the lives separate. I’m Caprice the cop, Caprice the entrepreneur, or Caprice the professor. I typically don’t co-mingle the stories unless I’m telling the stories for instructional purposes in class,” Smith said.

While the problems in society are far from solved, and our justice systems are in need of reform, looking back on her detective career, Smith recognizes the change she made in many people’s lives. Now, she utilizes her experiences to inspire her students to do the same.

“Especially in criminal justice, if our Mustangs don’t step up and be recognized as game changers, then the game doesn’t change. You’ve got to use your voice to change the world,” Smith said. “I was one of those people that always had a solution. So my inspiration for being a professor was that: of all the experiences that I’ve had, I knew that they weren’t for me. And I had to instill this in some way to the community.”