AUSTIN — Though it’s been just over a week since Bill Duerson was sworn in as the Austin Police Department’s new chief, Duerson said the role is “much better than I thought it ever would be.”
Duerson was sworn in Jan. 20.
“I saw an opportunity come up, and I prayed about it, and my heart was led to Austin,” he said of becoming police chief. “This is an amazing community, great people. The amount of support and well wishes and cooperation has been overwhelming. I’ve been welcomed here so much. It’s been great. I look forward to a long future here.”
The England, Arkansas, native, who now lives in Des Arc, said growing up around relatives who served in the Navy and Army influenced him.
“Public service and service to others have been, I guess you could say, my family’s legacy,” he said. “I come from a military family.”
Duerson got his law enforcement start in 1999 with the Drew County Sheriff’s Office as a jailer. The next year, he worked dispatch at the Monticello Police Department and was a part-time officer. After leaving Monticello in 2002, he joined the England Police Department as a patrol lieutenant and K-9 handler, leaving the department in 2004. He was a K-9 handler for the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office from 2004 to 2007 and spent 10 months with the Lonoke Police Department until being hired at the Prairie County Sheriff’s Office.
“When I was hired at the Prairie County Sheriff’s Office, I was hired as an investigator. I was a criminal investigator for six years. While there, I was assigned to the Central Arkansas Drug Task Force, investigating mainly just drug crimes, but also working and investigating all kinds of different crimes pertinent to Prairie County,” he said. “Then after my first six years there, I was promoted to chief deputy, where I was for two years. And now I’m here.”
Duerson said that through his past experience, he’s been exposed to nearly every type of leadership there is, taking note of what works and what doesn’t. Going forward, he said, the department will become more progressive and proactive.
“We’re going to be more in touch with our communities,” he said. “Austin used to have different crime watches, neighborhood watches. They were very active at one time. In the past, they’ve just kind of gone by the wayside. One of my goals is to get those back up and have the Police Department more in tune with the community’s needs and identifying all their problems that they’re having in each neighborhood. That way, we can directly address it.”
Duerson said his goal is for the community and its officers to better know one another.
“I want our community to know our officers, not just be able to put a name with the face, but know who we are, where we come from, exactly who we are. I want us in turn to know the people in our community,” Duerson said. “If we’re on a personal level with our community, we can better serve them. With them knowing us personally, it puts in a level of trust, and that’s one of the biggest things I want our city to have — unparalleled trust with us. I believe they deserve it.”
While Duerson will be handling day-to-day administrative tasks such as payroll and equipment monitoring, he’ll also be out patrolling like every other officer in the department. The department has 16 officers, most of whom are part time, and has one open position for a full-time officer.
“First and foremost, a chief has to care about his people,” he said. “We’re a team. Like I’ve told all my officers, ultimately, the responsibility lies on my shoulders, but this is our department. This is a team. Each member of this team has input, and it’s all valued.”
Michael Tenison, a senior patrolman who has been with the Police Department for nearly four years, said he’s known Duerson for years through law enforcement.
“I think he is an excellent leader,” Tenison said. “I think he brings a lot of quality to our department, I think he keeps a lot of structure to our department, and he’s a really good man. He’s an easy guy to get along with; he always has been. He’s very professional with the community and with our officers and with our city leaders.”
Duerson said the department is seeking grants to gain new technology, such as mobile computing.
“This department, under Bill — it’s going to grow,” Tenison said. “After all these years of working with Chief Duerson, I’ve seen the professionalism he’s always put toward what he’s doing, and I know he’s the right man for the job here.”
The building on Arkansas 367 that currently houses the department also contains all city operations. The building includes a courtroom that can be used for City Council meetings, public meetings and law enforcement training, which Duerson expects to go beyond what’s mandated by the state.
“I’ve been in contact with area departments, and we’re going to try to hold countywide law enforcement training. There’s yearly training we have to do on racial profiling, domestic violence and cultural-diversity training. … We can host that here, along with specialized training, standardized field-sobriety training, crime-scene investigations, crime-scene processing — those are some of the classes that we’re going to teach out of here.”
Certain memories of assisting others, like helping fix a burglary victim’s window or giving advice on ways to keep one’s house safer, have stayed with Duerson throughout his experience. He said it’s important to go a step beyond taking a police report. He added that the door to the department is always open.
“[The best part is] knowing that when I go home, I have positively impacted somebody’s life,” he said. “It may be a small mundane call, but for that small period in time, I’ve made somebody’s day, and that’s what I strive to do every day.”
Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.