Front & Center: Horace Walters

TRI-LAKES AREA — Horace Walters thought he might be able to help.

“I had been reading about the problems in Alexander,” said Walters, a retired Little Rock police captain. “I continued to see nothing but negative comments about the Alexander Police Department, and I decided I wanted to take on the challenge to straighten it out.”

Walters called Mayor Shirley Johnson and asked for an interview.

“We talked about some goals and objectives for the department,” Walters said. “About 10 days later, she asked if I was still interested in a job, and I said yes.”

The Alexander City Council later voted 7-1 to make Walters the new chief of police.

On March 8, federal District Court Judge G. Thomas Eisele ruled that officers in the city’s police department had been racially profiling Hispanic members of the community. Damages awarded to the five men who brought the suit were $100,500.

Police Chef Allen Spears and Assistant Police Chief Tommy Leath were named in the lawsuit. Both of the police officials resigned.

Another Alexander police officer, Lt. Brad Williams, was terminated from his job by the mayor after the resignations, but was later reinstated.

Williams is happy that Walters now leads the department.

“He is a good man,” Williams said of Walters. “I’ve only known him for a few weeks, but I feel like I’veknown him all my life.” Williams, who has been in law enforcement for 20 years, said he has spent five troubled years as an officer with the Alexander Police Department but now looks to stay with the new chief.

“Things are as different as night and day,” he said. “The chief is a professional and someone you can trust and confide in.” Walters said his first objective is to correct problems within the department.

“There has been unprofessional conduct and a lack of control,” he said. “After I arrived, I started an investigation, and there was racial profiling in the Hispanic community and selective law enforcement.” The chief said he has seen a fear of police officers in the minority communities of Alexander.

“As a minority, I think I can help the city by reducing the adverse feelings in that community for the department,” Walters said.

His early efforts are having some success, he said. Recently Walters was approached by a family with relatives in the city. They told him they stayed away from the city because of the police but now feel they can come back and visit again, Walters said.

Asked if the police problems included traffic tickets, he laughed.

“You have heard correctly,” he said. “A large amount of the traffic citations written in Alexander were not normally written in other jurisdictions. Many were only written in certain areas.”

One incident especially troubled Walters.

He said a number of tickets were given to drivers who had crossed the center line of a city street to avoid hitting the body of a dog in the roadway.

“People were just going around it,” he said. “I don’t think I am contaminating the investigation to say that I question how the dead animal got there, but I think I know.”

Another change he is making in the department has been, he admits, an unpopular decision.

“Every officer had rank here, and I have eliminated all ranks but mine,” Walters said.

“I don’t want them to have to buy new badges and I let them wear their rank, but they understand they are patrol officers.”

For now, Walters has three full-time officers, some part-time officers and a reserve officer. He hopes to build a professional forceof 10 certified, full-time police officers.

His ultimate goal is to have the department accredited by the National Accreditation Association of America.

“There are few small department that are fully accredited,’ he said.

Walters was born in Prescott, the 13th of 14 children.

“There is nothing unlucky about the number 13,” he said with a smile.

He attended Philander Smith College on a football scholarship in 1963, only to have the school cancel its football program the next year. Walters received another scholarship to attend Southern Illinois University, but he left after another year, when he got married.

He lived in Chicago, his wife’s hometown, and worked as a city bus driver until 1972, when his wife died.

Walters and his daughters moved to Little Rock, and he joined the Police Department.

He served two years as a patrol officer but earned the rank of captain by 1986 and was commander for the Southwest Patrol Division when he retired in 2000.

Walters worked with Benton Police Chief Kirk Lane when Walters was in Little Rockand Lane was a deputy sheriff in Pulaski County. During the recent holiday weekend, Walters joined Lane to observe a Benton police checkpoint looking for drunk drivers.

“He has quite a challenge there,” Lane said of Walters that night. “But he is a good officer and will do a good job.” Lane and Walters meet monthly with other law-enforcement officials in Saline County to exchange information from their departments.

When not on duty, Walters travels around the world and is a skilled skier. Each January, he joins his brothers and nephews on an allmale family skiing trip.

“I am on the blue slopes; I try to stay within my limits,” Walters said. “We still race and laugh when somebody falls.”

Walters said his father, an elementary school teacher and a railroad conductor, taught his sons to communicate with all kinds of people.

“I cannot do a lot about what has happened in the past here, but I can talk to those people who have been afraid of the police or had something happen and let them know I am the chief of police for the entire city, not just part of it. Maybe they will think better of our police from now on.” - wbryan@arkansasonline.com