FORT SMITH — The new police chief for Fort Smith has laid out three objectives: stabilizing the Police Department, improving the department’s effectiveness, and building relationships between the department and other entities.
In an interview, Police Chief Danny Baker, 46, said he believes the Fort Smith Police Department needs to do these things to be successful as an organization. City Administrator Carl Geffken announced Baker’s appointment on Sept. 27, selecting him over two other finalists to run the Police Department in the state’s second-largest city. He was sworn in Oct. 11.
Geffken has said he chose Baker because he is a veteran of the Fort Smith Police Department, knows its history and has “a clear vision.”
In terms of the first goal, Baker said the Police Department had many people leave in a very short amount of time.
“We lost a lot of experience, a lot of tenure with the department, and so a lot of the issues and the challenges I think that we faced in the last six months are manifestations of that, of a very young department, a very immature department,” Baker said. “We’ve been short supervisors, we’ve been short people for a long time.”
At the outset of the severe flooding that took place in Fort Smith in late May and June, Baker estimated the Police Department was down by close to 40 positions.
Fort Smith police Capt. Wes Milam said on Thursday the Police Department has a total of 37 open assignments, with 22 in its uniformed bureau, 13 in its nonuniformed bureau and 2 in its administration bureau. The department will be able to fill 24 of these positions once certain officers complete their training, which will leave 13 officer positions open. The department is authorized 164 officers.
Achieving stability for the Police Department, Baker said, involves slowing down the number of officers who are retiring or leaving, and continuing to fill vacancies by recruiting qualified, diverse candidates. Among the areas in the department that suffered from the downsizing seen in the past few years were narcotics, K9 and the Criminal Investigation Division.
Developing competent, qualified leaders within this young department is necessary as well, as is training and enhancing processes related to career advancement. A present focus on training related to other topics such as de-escalation, crisis intervention and alternatives to incarceration will continue. Baker would also like to see the department getting raises for its hourly employees at some point in time.
INCREASED TECHNOLOGY
Among the goals Baker talked about in regards to the second initiative were increasing the number of sworn officers and 911 dispatchers, including supervisory positions, as well as increasing the number of uniformed patrol officers on the streets.
One can also expect to see an increased use of technology from the department in the near future. For instance, Baker said he is looking at instituting a couple of drones, with him specifically referencing the North Little Rock Police Department’s drone program.
“They’ve been involved with drones for some time and seem to have a very solid program, so we’ll be reaching out to them for some guidance and maybe some policies in regards to that,” Baker said.
In addition to continuing to obtain alternative funding sources, such as grants, and its community policing efforts, the department will also continue to move forward with long-range strategic plans that were originally initiated by Baker’s predecessor, Nathaniel Clark. This includes the establishment of a second precinct in the eastern or southeastern part of Fort Smith and a new training facility.
The creation of a crisis intervention unit is also a priority for Baker, with him trying to flesh out exactly how that needs to look for the department. He defined this unit as a group of officers who will have more enhanced training related to handling people in mental crisis, which could extend to people with substance abuse issues the department deals with on a daily basis. Baker believes this will be key in the department’s efforts of reducing incarceration and diversion from the Sebastian County jail.
Currently, Baker said if the department gets a call concerning someone experiencing some kind of crisis or intoxicated to the point where they are causing problems, a patrol officer has no choice but to either take this person to jail or try to find a place to put him. In addition, most of these people are homeless.
“And so we wind up with taking a police officer off the street,” Baker said. “The jail can’t take them because they’re too drunk, or they’re too high, or they’ve injured themselves in some way, so then the officer is left with taking them to the hospital, and oftentimes they’re belligerent, won’t obtain treatment. What winds up happening is we have an officer tied up dealing with this individual for an extended amount of time.”
Baker said he thinks having a group of officers trained specifically in dealing with these types of people and able to spend the time necessary to ensure they get the care they need will be a stopgap until state legislation can be passed regarding sobering centers.
The Sebastian County Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee approved a motion Oct. 15 to support legislation during the 2021 legislative session that would make a sobering center a reality within the county.
David Hudson, county judge of Sebastian County, afterward said the facility would serve as a place where law enforcement officers could take intoxicated individuals instead of taking them to the Sebastian County jail. He said the facility would provide a safe alternative and possibly help connect people to ongoing treatment options.
Baker also intends to create an intelligence unit to further the department’s efforts at intelligence-led policing and augment the criminal investigation division.
For the third goal, Baker talked about building relationships, or tearing down barriers, between the Police Department and the community, as well as other agencies and city departments.
One example he gave is that he and Sebastian County Sheriff Hobe Runion are working closely together to address the issue of overcrowding at the Sebastian County jail.
FORT SMITH EXPERIENCE
Baker has 22 total years of experience in law enforcement, with over 18 years of service in the Fort Smith Police Department. Before his appointment as police chief, Baker served as interim police chief beginning April 8 after Clark resigned March
- He described his time in his position as “fraught with challenges,” with the Police Department having to face difficult problems that it handled “admirably.”
This includes the severe flooding in the spring. Baker said he was pleased with how the department united and came through this natural disaster, an incident he cited as perhaps most instrumental in him making the decision to apply for the full-time police chief position.
“But prior to that, I had no strong intentions to be the chief,” Baker said. “I was certainly comfortable in the position that I was, but after the flood and seeing how the department came together and rallied behind me and my leadership. You know, I take no credit for that. Obviously, somebody had to be in the chair when it happened, but the people of this department and this city and the other departments were the ones that, working together, made that such a success.”
Baker said he received a considerable amount of feedback after the flood, with there being many people in the Police Department and community at large who he believed wanted to see him as the full-time police chief. Baker also benefited from the experience he gained while going through the process as a candidate for the position.
“I look at it like I would’ve come out a winner either way,” Baker said. “Got a lot of valuable experience from the process, and if I hadn’t been named the next chief, I would have a very strong relationship with whoever was, either of those other two candidates. I don’t feel like there was any kind of animosity or adversarial relationship between any of us, so if one of them had been the chief, I would’ve gladly gone back to my role as the deputy chief and done my very best to make them successful.”
The other two finalists were Little Rock Assistant Police Chief Alice Fulk and Palestine, Texas, Police Chief Andy Harvey.
Geffken said via email Friday that Baker brings considerable heart to his job, and believes in the police department getting out and engaging with the community.
Since he became city administrator in 2016, Geffken said Fort Smith has been working to modernize and strengthen the city’s management and financial practices, as well as build trust with the people. What has been happening in the Police Department is an extension of this.
“We hired Fort Smith’s first African-American police chief and worked to diversify the force, so that our officers look more like the community they serve,” Geffken said. “With Board [of Directors] support, we prioritized funding 21st century law enforcement equipment, tools, training and practices. During his tenure as a captain followed by deputy chief, Chief Baker was involved in that — in assessing the needs of the police department and implementing the new initiatives aimed at community engagement.”
During the flood, Geffken said, Baker and his force were crucial, much like the Fort Smith fire chief and the heads of the city streets and sanitation departments.
“All our departmental teams worked cohesively as one team,” Geffken said. “We were constantly connected and immediately responsive to community needs and priorities for weeks before, during, and after the flood. And Chief Baker’s skilled management of officers’ work schedules, cancelling vacations and days off, meant that we kept our force out there, protecting and serving 24/7.”
Baker said although the details of his yearly salary and benefits are still being worked out, he agreed to $95,000 as a starting base salary.