The first community forum to introduce Little Rock police chief candidates will be held Monday, Mayor Frank Scott announced Tuesday in the city Board of Directors meeting.
The city's top four candidates -- pared from an initial 51 applicants -- will interview with Scott and go before residents in the coming two weeks before the mayor announces his pick for the Police Department's new leader.
Each of the forums will be from 6-8 p.m. and will be held in the Kendall Nugent Center at Philander Smith College in downtown Little Rock.
Todd Chamberlain, a retired Los Angeles police commander, will visit with Little Rock residents on Monday. Little Rock department Assistant Chief Hayward Finks will speak before the community on Feb. 28. Norman, Okla., Police Chief Keith Humphrey will follow on March 4, and Little Rock department Assistant Chief Alice Fulk will speak March 6.
The police chief position was vacated, and the city began taking applications for the position in November after former Chief Kenton Buckner announced that he would take a position as chief of police in Syracuse, N.Y.
The city's assistant chiefs -- Wayne Bewley, Finks and Fulk -- have served as interim chiefs on a rotating basis during the search for a new chief.
The Little Rock chief of police oversees a department of nearly 600 officers and a budget of $75.7 million, and the position comes with a maximum salary of $142,663, according to application materials from the city.
Scott announced a list of 10 finalists on Feb. 1. Scott's leadership team interviewed the top 10 candidates over video conference or in person and pared the list to four on Feb. 12.
While the candidates are in Little Rock for their community forums, Scott will interview them and ultimately choose the department's next leader.
The original deadline for hiring a police chief was mid-February. An organizational shift that the city announced in January placed the Police Department -- and the national search to find its leader -- under Scott's purview, and the mayor said the deadline would be extended to allow for each candidate to meet members of the community.
Chamberlain is a retired Los Angeles police commander and teaches criminal justice courses at California State University in Los Angeles.
Finks has been a Little Rock police officer for more than 30 years and has served as an assistant chief since 2012.
Humphrey has more than 30 years of experience as an officer in Texas and Oklahoma and has been the police chief in Norman since 2011.
Fulk is a 26-year veteran of the Little Rock department and has been an assistant chief since 2015.
Metro on 02/20/2019