Thomas takes final shift as LR lawman

Friday marked the end of an era.

In the morning, Stuart Thomas walked into the Little Rock Police Department as a chief. Shortly before 5 p.m., he walked out a civilian.

Thomas' retirement, one announced in late January, marked the end of his nine-year tenure leading the state's largest police department.

On Monday, a new era will begin when Thomas' replacement, Kenton Buckner, 45, a Kentucky native and assistant police chief with the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department, is sworn in as the 35th Little Rock police chief.

Thomas, 58, now twice retired, returned to the Little Rock Police Department in 2005 as chief only a year after retiring as assistant chief, a rank he held for nine years.

After years of fielding media interviews, Thomas "respectfully" declined an exit interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and suggested that he is already "old news" in an email.

"I've had my time in the sun," Thomas wrote. "I'm really looking forward to being in the shade."

At the lawman's retirement ceremony Monday at the department's training facility, several law enforcement and city officials praised -- as well as teased -- a man who dedicated himself to public service and leaving the department better than he found it.

City Manager Bruce Moore, who selected Thomas over several other candidates with Little Rock ties in 2004, bid Thomas a heartfelt farewell and thanked him for the work he did to better the city and the department.

"There are a few adjectives that describe Chief Thomas for me: steadfast, trustworthy, smart, prepared, innovative, strategic, dedicated, approachable, responsible, firm, strong, humorous, friendly -- but most importantly honorable," Moore said. "I knew 10 years ago I got it right with you, and without a doubt, 10 years later, I know I got it right."

After Thomas graduated from Catholic High School in Little Rock in 1973, he worked a number of odd jobs, including working the door at a theater and making a living as a freelance writer and photographer, according to personnel records.

In 1977, someone broke into his car and Thomas, unsatisfied with how he thought the officer handled the investigation, went to the department to complain.

The officer he complained to challenged him to join the department and do better. He applied in March of that year and officially started as a patrol officer in the department in 1978.

During Thomas' retirement ceremony, someone pointed out that an arrest has yet to be made in the break-in.

"I kind of got in this line of work for probably the wrong reasons," Thomas told a crowd of more than 100 at his ceremony. "It worked out pretty well. I'm very, very grateful."

After spending nine years in patrol and as a detective, where he earned a 100 percent clearance rate as a homicide detective, Thomas was promoted to sergeant in 1987.

In 1990, he was promoted to lieutenant, and in 1992, was promoted again to captain. In 1995, he became an assistant police chief, a position he held until he retired from the department in 2004.

In 2005, he went back to lead, replacing outgoing chief Lawrence Johnson and taking over a department that was short on officers, hurting financially and still fractured by internal strife after some of Johnson's handling of personnel issues.

The department now has more than 550 officers, up from about 500 in 2005, and it is in the process of filling the remaining vacancies to reach the full authorized staffing of 574 sworn officers.

The funding for those hires was provided, in part, by additional revenue gained from the passage of a city sales tax increase in 2011.

Thomas was at the forefront of explaining the need for more sales tax revenue, and with its passage, the once cash-strapped agency started a hiring drive, purchased a new fleet of vehicles and invested in a new communications system. The department is in the midst of capital upgrades that will end with the construction of a new headquarters.

Crime fell steadily over the course of Thomas' chief tenure.

In 2005, Little Rock police recorded 19,517 total major crimes, a figure that dropped to 16,538 in 2010, a low not seen since the late 1970s. They registered 17,358 such offenses in 2013.

Thomas' replacement, Buckner, will inherit a department on pace to be slightly up in crime after the first five months of 2014, according to preliminary figures released by the Police Department.

Buckner, who beat out three internal candidates in a 59-applicant pool, joined the Louisville police in 1993. He was promoted three times between 2008 and 2011 and left the department as the head of the agency's community programs, crime records and data programs.

Starting at a $135,000 annual salary, Buckner will be sworn in at a public ceremony at 9 a.m. Monday at City Hall.

As for Thomas, the former lawman looks to enjoy life out of the public eye and possibly on the golf course. He said he is thankful for every opportunity he was given.

Certainly, Thomas said, he will rest easier at night.

"Someone once asked me, 'Chief, what keeps you up at night?'" he said in a tearful farewell earlier in the week. "The chief worries and doesn't sleep at night wondering if everybody comes home. Do we get it right? Can we get it done, and can we make it back?"

At the end of his final public remarks as chief, Thomas pivoted quickly to a wit that has been informed by nearly four decades of police work.

"I would suggest, in the future, that if somebody calls your bluff, uh, pass," Thomas said. "You lose a ponytail over the deal."

Metro on 06/28/2014

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