With less than a month left before the deadline, applications for the capital city's police chief job are arriving from as far as California, Oregon and Maryland, but not from the Little Rock Police Department, though at least one officer said he plans to apply.
Little Rock had received 31 police chief applications as of Wednesday, 19 days before the deadline, according to application materials provided by the city.
Only three people from Little Rock have turned in applications to replace former Chief Kenton Buckner -- none of whom are currently police officers.
Three of the past four people to hold the high-profile position, which comes with a salary of $142,663 and oversees almost 600 employees, have been external hires. Former chiefs Buckner, Lawrence Johnson and Louie Caudell were external hires.
The only internal hire at the top of the department since 1988 was Stuart Thomas, who served as chief for nine of his 36 years with the department after being promoted from administrative services manager in 2005.
Despite the historical trend of external hires, sources within the department say Little Rock is looking for a local leader.
The Little Rock police chief position became available in mid-November after Buckner announced he would take a new job in Syracuse, N.Y.
Internal Candidates
The three assistant chiefs under Buckner's leadership -- Alice Fulk, Hayward Finks and Wayne Bewley -- are serving as the interim chief on a rotating basis until a new chief is hired, according to a memo sent by City Manager Bruce Moore on Nov. 13.
The new police chief would oversee the department's $75 million budget and take on the scrutiny the Little Rock department has come under in the past year. Multiple lawsuits and allegations of misconduct have received national attention in the past few months.
Moore estimated in November that the search for the new chief would last approximately 90 days, meaning a new chief could take over as soon as mid-February.
Though no current members of the force have applied yet, multiple sources in the department said they expect internal applications to appear before the deadline.
"I think you'll see some more applications, if I were to bet," Fulk said Friday.
Fulk said she is still considering applying for the position.
Finks, who had not submitted an application as of Friday night, said he intends to apply.
"I've asked a few people throughout the department, and I think a lot of people think an internal candidate could be good for the department," Finks said. "It's always good to have eyes from the outside to come in ... but I think it's good to have someone who has an intimate knowledge of the department, the city and the people, too."
Bewley said he has decided not to apply for the position but expects to see some colleagues' applications in the mix.
"The other two assistant chiefs that work in the office, I'm hoping they do submit their applications," Bewley said. "I think they'd be capable and qualified leaders."
John Gilchrist, president of the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police, said he expects "at least a couple" of people to apply from within the department.
"I think whoever holds that position, whether it be Buckner or Thomas before him, I think part of their mentoring or leadership included developing people from within, and I think they both did that," Gilchrist said.
The application the city distributed says preference will be given to candidates who have served as assistant police chief, police chief or deputy police chief, but Gilchrist said he believes there are other kinds of experience that could also produce strong leaders.
"The northwest precinct is larger than 75 percent of the cities in Arkansas; the captain there's budget is also bigger than most police departments in Arkansas," Gilchrist said. "I think somebody who filters through these applications has to see that. That's the little caveat that you have to work around."
Nationally, police chiefs in larger cities serve on average 2½ to three years, according to the Police Executive Research Forum, a trend that is not reflected in previous Little Rock chiefs' tenures.
Buckner served four years. His predecessor, Thomas, was chief for nine years. Before Thomas, Johnson held the position for five years, and Caudell served a total of 11 years from 1988 to 1999.
The city has posted an assistant police chief job description, according to the city's government jobs site.
EXTERNAL CANDIDATES
All of the candidates as of Wednesday were from outside the department.
Three people in Arkansas' capital city have applied for police chief, including a U.S. marshal and a Secret Service Agent.
The three Little Rock applicants are: Ernest Harris, a former professional standards and warrants sergeant with the Pulaski County sheriff's office; Brian Marr, former chief of security for the Arkansas Department of Human Services; and Leo Smith, a former probation officer with Little Rock's traffic court.
Contact information on the applications of Smith and Harris was redacted in the materials released through the Freedom of Information Act request submitted to the city, though no other candidates' information was similarly redacted.
The city human resources director, whose office released the application materials, did not immediately return multiple calls about the redaction Friday.
Before working in the Pulaski County sheriff's office, Harris spent more than 20 years as a U.S. Marshals Service criminal investigation team supervisor and four years as a Little Rock police officer, according to application materials. Harris has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Marr spent 28 years with the U.S. Secret Service as a special agent and special agent in charge, including details on the presidential protective division in Washington, D.C., between 1993 and 1997 during President Bill Clinton's time in office, according to his resume. He has a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
Smith worked as a bailiff in Pulaski County and as a UAMS Police Department officer before taking a position as a probation officer in Little Rock traffic court. He has an associate's degree from Pulaski Technical College, according to his resume.
Of the 31 applications submitted thus far, 28 are from outside the capital city.
Kathy Wells, president of the Coalition of Greater Little Rock Neighborhoods, said that whether the new police chief is an internal or external hire is less important than whether the leader listens to community concerns.
Little Rock has become large enough to "fish in the national pool" of candidates for a new police chief, Wells said, meaning the city has the ability to choose the best of the best.
"They'd have to be really stellar talent to hire locally," Wells said.
That being said, Wells added that it's important to choose an officer who has shown dedication to the communities in which he has served, as opposed to "people who move from large city to large city looking for bigger positions."
The city's candidates come from a variety of backgrounds, application records show, including a Los Angeles police officer turned criminal justice faculty member at California State University in Los Angeles, a United States Army criminal investigator with more than 30 years of police experience on the East Coast, and a 28-year-old fresh graduate of Middle Tennessee State University.
Charles Carafano, former director of the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland and U.S. Army investigator in Washington, D.C., said he retired in February but feels he still has more to offer as a law enforcement leader.
"You can look at the police side of what I've done, and my track record of solving problems," Carafano said. "I'm from a big community, so in a smaller community, I really think I could make an impact."
Travis Brown, if chosen, would be the youngest police chief in Little Rock's history at 28 years old. Brown was a weapons instructor with the U.S. Marines Corps for five years before working as a corrections officer for the Warren County sheriff's office and the Tennessee Department of Correction.
"I'm young," Brown said. "But I'm very persistent, and in that line of work, people appreciate it or they don't."
Andre Anderson, special operations division commander for the Glendale Police Department in Arizona, withdrew his application Friday.
CORRECTION: The City of Little Rock Department of Human Resources has a job description posted on its website for an assistant police chief. An article Monday incorrectly reported that the city is seeking applications for that job.
A Section on 12/17/2018