Topeka ? People arrested by Topeka Police officer Roger Smith often laugh as he takes them to jail.

“They say, ‘I got busted by Drew Carey,'” Smith said with a smile.

Smith has smiled a lot since learning he bears a close physical resemblance to Carey, a comedian recognizable by his stout build, black glasses and close-cropped hair.

Since 1995, Carey has starred in ABC-TV’s “The Drew Carey Show,” a sitcom set in his hometown of Cleveland.

Smith learned about Carey eight or nine years ago while visiting a relative who had moved to Cleveland. Smith was walking around downtown when he noticed people were honking their horns, waving at him and calling him “Drew.”

About six months later, Smith turned on his TV and saw a cable channel was playing a special featuring Carey.

“I’m sitting there watching TV and I’m going, ‘Oh my God, I look like this guy on TV,’ and at that very moment my phone rings,” Smith said. It was a friend from college, who was watching Carey on TV and thought Smith must have changed his name to Drew Carey.

At the time, Smith was a Holton Police officer. A native of Gardner in Johnson County, he graduated in 1985 from Kansas University and worked for the Atchison Police Department until 1991.

Smith became a Topeka Police officer in 1996. Before long, he needed new glasses. Fellow officers dared him to get “black geek glasses” like those Carey wears, so he walked into a local eyewear store and asked for “Drew Carey glasses.”

Ever since, hardly a day has gone by that someone hasn’t mistaken Smith for Carey.

When he goes out with friends, they often make it a game to see how long it takes before a stranger says something about the resemblance or looks at Smith in a way that makes it clear they think he is Carey. Usually, that happens within five minutes.

Topeka Police officer and Drew Carey look-alike Roger Smith, left, talks with friend and fellow officer Jim Collins as the two work off-duty security at the Capital Plaza Hotel. Smith says that some of his funniest Drew Carey moments have occurred while making arrests.

Smith’s resemblance to Carey is strong enough that his mere presence on police calls often defuses tense situations.

“One of the funniest things I ever saw was at a bar fight, and this guy had a hold of this dude and he was getting ready just to pound him, and somebody goes, ‘Hey, look, it’s Drew Carey,”‘ Smith recalled.

He said the man turned to look and lost interest in punching his victim.

Another time, Smith said, he pulled over a suspected drunken driver who looked at Smith’s face, appeared “just stupefied” and turned to his passenger.

“He goes, ‘Man, I’m really messed up. This cop looks like Drew Carey,'” Smith said.

Smith said his resemblance to Carey had enhanced his social life because people often approached him to talk about it. He said he was glad he looked like Carey rather than Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden.

“Drew Carey is just an average, normal, everyday-looking guy,” Smith said. “He looks like the guy who would live next door to you. He’s the guy you went to high school with, just getting by like everybody else.”

But the treatment Smith gets from people who mistake him for Carey is often anything but ordinary. He recalled how, during a trip to Chicago, he was standing alone in line at a restaurant wearing a Cleveland Indians shirt when the maitre d’ pulled him out of line, set him at a table and had him waited on “hand and foot.”

“When it was over, I handed them my MasterCard and the guy looks at it and sees ‘Roger Smith’ on it,” Smith recalled. “I go, ‘Did you think I was somebody else?’ The guy says, ‘Oh my God.'”