In his 30 years with the Cabot Police Department, Jackie Davis has seen a lot of change in both the department and the city. Cabot has grown, the department has had to adapt, and Davis has been at the helm of the department for 18 years. Davis was recently named Chief of the Year by the Arkansas Association of Chiefs of Police, but he said the award is a reflection of the department — not just him — and the hard work the officers and staff do on a daily basis.
“I’ve been blessed to be chief, but it’s easy when you have a team that is easy to work with,” he said. “I like to consider us a team. I try to always make sure I don’t consider anyone an employee; I consider them all to be coworkers.”
Davis grew up just outside of Cabot, the youngest of five children. While he said he does not specifically remember wanting to be a police officer when he was growing up, a former classmate recently reminded him of this dream.
“A classmate I graduated with told me that in the second grade, she remembered me telling my teacher that I wanted to be a police officer,” he said. “She reminded me [of] that on Facebook the other day. She didn’t remember what she wanted to be, but she remembered that I wanted to be a police officer.”
After graduating from Cabot High School in 1982, Davis worked at a lumber yard and was a volunteer firefighter for the Tri-County Volunteer Fire Department.
“I was friends with a lot of Cabot Fire Department people. We went to a lot of training together,” he said. “I was in town one night when they had a large business fire. I helped them with that for a while, and the fire chief asked me to join the Cabot Fire Department.”
From there, Davis started driving ambulances. He said on Saturdays, he would work at the lumber yard until noon, then work as a volunteer ambulance driver in Cabot until 6 p.m. Sunday.
“That’s how I actually got to start riding in police cars, too,” he said. “Back then, we operated off of pagers. We were having to ride with police officers. That’s how I developed that interest, especially on the midnight shifts on Saturdays.”
On Aug. 1, 1985, Davis officially joined the Cabot Police Department. There were seven officer positions at the time, and Davis’ knowledge of the town gave him an edge.
“The chief at that time hired me, saying, ‘I have people who have trained or been police officers, but I don’t have anyone who knows Cabot,’” Davis said. “That’s how I got hired. I knew the Cabot people and had worked with the officers enough that I had good recommendations from them. I turned 21 on June 28 and went to work Aug. 1.”
Davis said one of the most important lessons he learned as a rookie was how to communicate with people. The department was small, and there were many times Davis was the only officer on duty. He said it was important to know when to push back and when to play nice on calls.
“In those days, we worked one officer on the streets most of the time,” he said. “You had to learn how to talk to people. Most of the time, after midnight, you were the only officer on in northern Lonoke County. There were no troopers, no deputies. Being the rookie, I ended up on midnight shift most of the time. … You were going to fight at some point during the week. Someone was going to test you, so you learned how to talk to people and talk them into cars. You learned to humble yourself, but you still didn’t let them run over you.”
A lot of the calls on the night shift were for DUIs and fights, but the people he would arrest usually didn’t hold grudges of any kind. Instead, they would be the first to help if there was a car that had run off in a ditch, Davis said.
Davis said he had little to no training except for some on-the-job lessons the first few months that he was a police officer. He was hired in August and did not go to the police academy until April, and he said it was scary because he knew he was undertrained.
“I still see that trend somewhat today,” he said. “It scares me to death because I know what we dealt with. Training is the primary thing that will keep an officer from getting in over his head or having to use force when there is a way to utilize other options.”
After five years, Davis became a sergeant and stayed in that position until a chief retired in 1995. At that time, Davis took on the acting chief position until a new chief could be hired. The new chief ended up leaving in 1996. In that time, Davis had been promoted to lieutenant, but he was chosen to take on the chief’s role and started his duties as chief in January 1997.
Since then, Davis has worked as chief under four mayors. He has seen the department grow from 15 officers and a five-member support staff to 43 officers and a 12-member support staff. As time has gone on and Cabot has grown, Davis said, the department has had to overcome problems relating to traffic, call volume and maintenance of proper equipment.
In addition to his duties as chief, Davis has been a part of multiple law-enforcement groups that support local agencies. He served as secretary and treasurer for the Arkansas Association of Chiefs of Police from 2010 until the beginning of August of this year. He was appointed to the State Crime Lab Board in 2011 by Gov. Mike Beebe and also serves on the Central Arkansas Crime Stoppers Board.
On Aug. 13, Davis was named Chief of the Year by the AACP at the organization’s annual conference. He said he was nominated by several board members, and he is thankful that the Cabot Police Department has received some positive recognition.
In addition to his duties as police chief, Davis is an active member of Cabot United Methodist Church and spends time with his family.
Staff writer Angela Spencer can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or aspencer@arkansasonline.com.