Kyle Osborne

LITTLE ROCK — Asingle golf club stands in the corner behind the door to Searcy Police Chief Kyle Osborne’s office - a club that he said he hasn’t picked up in a long time. He pointed to photos of golfing trips and smiled when asked about his getting not one hole-in-one, but two.

In December, the chief will retire after devoting 30 years to the Searcy Police Department.

“Absolutely nothing is the same,” Osborne said about the changes in the department over the years. “As Searcy has grown, we’ve had to adapt.”

He said that when he joined the force, there were only 12 officers, and now there are 47. There have been two location changes and several programs added to the department.

Growing up in McRae, Osborne wanted to become a police officer; there was no question about it.

“I can’t explain why,” he said about his desire to serve and protect.

After graduating from high school in 1978, Osborne went to work selling insurance for a company in Little Rock. After a while, he said, he realized that wasn’t what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. After talking with a few people and getting encouragement to apply, he said,he called the mayor of McRae and asked about a position that was open.

“He said, ‘You can start tomorrow if you want to,’” Osborne said. “I gave the insurance company a two-week notice and started work on Sept. 4, 1980, as a city marshalat McCrae.”

After almost two years, he went to work at the White County Sheriff’s Department before moving to the SearcyPolice Department, where he has spent the past 30 years of his career.

Stemming from those 30 years, Osborne is often asked to tell stories.

“People are always saying, ‘Tell us a story,’ but there are so many of them out there, it’s hard to pick one,” he said. “We average one homicide every six or seven years.”

He said although he hasn’tforgotten any of them, one that is seared into his mind is the murder of Tracy Holloway. In 1997, on her 30th birthday, she was beaten to death in her home, and there was never an arrest made.

“I’m convinced that some day it will be solved,” Osborne said.

The chief said the majority of the crime in Searcy is petty theft. And another story he recalled was a break-in that resulted in catching two criminals who had been on a sevenstate crime spree that included a murder.

“It was around ’95, and one of our officers caught a guy at a car dealership breaking in,” he said. “He chased him down and caught him.”

As the investigation unfolded, Osborne said there were two guys from Terre Haute, Ind., who were wanted in other jurisdictions.

“One guy admitted to killing a deputy sheriff in the ’70s, and it was still an open case,” Osborne said. “We got a video confession. … By the time it was over, we had 120 burglaries in 13 jurisdictions, seven states, plus the murder.”

No formal announcement has been made as to who will take over after Osborne retires, but he said he has confidence in the person chosen to step in.

Searcy Mayor David Morris said Osborne will leave some big shoes to fill.

“He’s an exceptional person, a very fine individual that has been a very good police officer and police chief for the city of Searcy,” said Morris, a longtime friend of Osborne’s. “His leaving will leave a big void.”

There are a lot of challenges in the chief’s position, Osborne said. One of those challenges is keeping personnel.

“Searcy is a small town, but we have issues like the big city, but just not as bad,” he said.

“In the world of law enforcement, you don’t make a lot of money, and I tend to lose people to jobs that pay more. … We go to the expense of recruiting, training and getting them where they need to be, and they’re gone. We can’t compete with the bigger cities as far as pay.”

Osborne said his children are following in his law enforcement footsteps. His son is a North Little Rock police officer, and his daughter will graduate from Arkansas State University in December with a Bachelorof Arts degree in criminal justice.

When he’s not protecting his city, Osborne likes to play golf, deer hunt and fish, in that order. He hopes to pick up that golf club more often.

“I could hunt and fish andwhatever I wanted, but when I started thinking about retiring, I decided I was too young not to have another career,” he said about the possibility of tossing his hat into the ring to run for public office.

Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline.com.

up closegetting to know

Kyle OsborneBirth date: Dec. 12, 1958 Birthplace: Searcy Hometown: McRae Bucket list: I want to go to Yellowstone National Park, go elk hunting in Colorado and play golf at Torrey Pines Golf Course in California.

Biggest influence: Gov. Mike Beebe.

The governor and I have been friends for years. I’ve spent a lot of time with him, and I think he’s been a huge influence on me, especially in the past 10 years.

Something most people don’t know about you: I have a very weak spot in my heart for kids and elderly people.

Three Rivers, Pages 132 on 01/29/2012

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