Beebe names retiree to head state police

LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Mike Beebe tapped another Arkansas State Police officer out of retirement to lead the state’s largest law enforcement agency.

During a press conference Monday afternoon, the governor announced that Col. J.R. Howard, a 33-year veteran of the state police, would take over the office left open with the resignation of Col. Winford Phillips last Tuesday.

Beebe’s pick of a director with deep ties to the agency continues the recent trend of hiring “from within” the agency after a six-year era of directors who had no state police experience.

Various officials, including the governor, think that trend is necessary in order to win the support and boost the morale of the agency’s 541 sworn officers.

“We’ve seen state police directors appointed from without and from within ... if you find somebody that fits the bill that the governor has confidence in that’s from within, you’re much better off,” Beebe said. “It may be human nature but they like to promote their own.”

John Allison, chairman of the Arkansas State Police Commission, said “I don’t know if it’s a mistake” to have hired outside of the agency, but that familiarity with organization helps in both the short and long term.

“I’m not going to criticize the past guys,” Allison said during an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.“But you’re a reporter. You can’t walk into a brain surgery room and take over. When you do, you’ll make mistakes.

“[Howard] knows the players, he knows the people, he knows the commission, the transition will be so much smoother,” Allison added.

Howard was spotted leaving Beebe’s office just an hour before the governor announced Phillips retirement last week.

After his announcement Monday, Beebe said the lifelong law-enforcement figure has the respect of other law enforcement figures statewide and will quickly get acclimated as the agency’s third director in just four years.

“He was one of, if not the, premier criminal investigator in the state,” Beebe said. “He was the first name that popped into my head and the first call I made, and lucky for all of us he said yes.”

Howard, a Searcy native, retired from the state police as a major in December 2004, three decades after becoming a trooper in 1971.

After heading the department’s criminal investigation division, Howard was picked by former Gov. Mike Huckabee in March 2004 to take over as executive director of the Arkansas Crime Laboratory, which does DNA, ballistics and other analysis for the state’s police departments and sheriff’s offices.

Howard left the appointment three years later after he was picked by President George W. Bush to be the next U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Beebe said Howard’s grounding in the agency, along with his administrative experience, is the best fit for taking the agency forward.

“[Howard is] somebody who understands the rank and file ... the issues ... someone who has experience dealing with the legislature,” Beebe said. “[Howard is] someone who is a police officer down to his bone marrow.”

Howard’s salary will be $110,568, state police spokesman Bill Sadler said. His appointment marks the third consecutive director to have come from within the organization.

From 1998 to 2004, Huckabee appointed a former personal attorney, Tom Mars, who abruptly resigned in 2001. In 2004, a former U.S. Marshal, Don Melton, took the job for only a few months until he resigned in June 2004.

Huckabee picked Col. Steve Dozier, a lifelong state police officer, to take over, and Beebe picked Dozier to stay at the post at the beginning of his first term.

After Dozier took a job with Wal-Mart just months after his appointment, he was replaced by Phillips, who had retired from the agency in 2002 and oversaw it until April 8.

After he thanked the governor, the commissioners and his family for their support, Howard said there were numerous issues that needed his attention, but he wouldn’t offer any specific problems or solutions.

“I’m just walking in the front door and I want to get my feet on the ground and busy with the staff,” Howard said. “We will meet the issues as they arise and I can’t predict what they’re going to be but there will be challenges when dealing with an organization the size of [the Arkansas State Police].”

Beebe said Howard would continue the standard set down by Phillips and that the veteran’s appointment wouldn’t rock the boat.

“[State police officers] don’t worry about anything except doing their jobs,” Beebe said. “That will continue under J.R.”