A resolution before the Little Rock Board of Directors expressing the board's lack of confidence in Police Chief Keith Humphrey was withdrawn by its sponsor during a meeting Tuesday after several city directors indicated they would not support the measure.
The withdrawal of the resolution sponsored by Ward 5 City Director Lance Hines capped weeks of discussion and jousting over the appropriateness of city directors commenting on the police chief's leadership at a time when attorneys for Humphrey and the city are embroiled in lawsuits. A vote on Hines' resolution was previously delayed during a board meeting Dec. 15.
The resolution was a symbolic action because Mayor Frank Scott Jr., not the city board, retains the power to fire the police chief. Scott hired Humphrey from his previous position as police chief in Norman, Okla., in 2019.
Nevertheless, the measure represented Hines' attempt to allow board members to make their views known with a public statement. If approved, the resolution would have put additional pressure on Scott, who appointed Humphrey shortly after he was elected.
Citing the personnel and legal matters involved, the mayor has largely avoided making public comments on the controversies surrounding the police chief. They include several lawsuits against Humphrey filed by his subordinates, who say the chief retaliated against them or their departmental allies because of testimony delivered in the aftermath of the February 2019 fatal shooting of Bradley Blackshire.
Additionally, the membership of the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge No. 17, approved a no-confidence resolution on Humphrey last summer. And in September, 10 members of the police command staff signed a letter to the mayor and city directors asking for help because of "a very toxic, hostile, and explosive work environment" created by Humphrey. The letter called Humphrey "a catastrophic problem" within the department.
The text of Hines' resolution stated, in part, "The Board expresses its lack of confidence in the leadership of Police Chief Keith Humphrey and strongly urges the Mayor to consider this view and take appropriate action with Chief Humphrey."
During an interview in November, Hines said he felt confident the resolution would succeed based on conversations with board members. If the resolution failed, "the point will be moot from my end," Hines said at the time. "I'll still continue to fight to relieve the chief of his command."
Earlier Tuesday, Little Rock City Attorney Tom Carpenter again expressed his legal concerns about the effects of city directors taking up the resolution.
In an email to Scott and members of the city board a little more than an hour before the meeting, Carpenter said he had concerns about Hines' resolution strictly from a liability standpoint.
He suggested that regardless of whether the board members approved or voted down the resolution, "I see no action that can be helpful to the City." Anything city officials say could complicate a future liability defense for the city during litigation involving the Police Department, Carpenter said.
At one point in the email, Carpenter noted the different position that city directors occupy as elected leaders compared with his own role as city attorney.
"I will not direct you to say, or not say, anything," Carpenter wrote. "You are elected policymakers, and I have no appreciation of how that impacts your duties since my position is appointed. However, I wanted you to have the benefit of my thoughts as we go into the meeting this afternoon."
Hines initially declined to withdraw the measure after Carpenter reiterated his concerns during Tuesday's meeting. Carpenter in his message had "circled himself up," Hines said, on the one hand telling city directors they shouldn't do something and on the other telling them they can.
"Am I reading that wrong?" Hines asked Carpenter.
"No, I think it's a lot like saying to your son, 'I really wish you wouldn't take the car out on New Year's Eve,' and they do it anyway and have a wreck," Carpenter said. "That's what I'm trying to avoid."
Carpenter added that he had seen how statements can be taken out of context during depositions.
During the lead-up to public comments on the resolution, Hines referred to comments at the past meeting that suggested the action pending against the chief was based on race. Humphrey is Black, and Hines is white.
"I feel very unfortunate, and almost sad, that it seems like civil discourse not only in this city but in our country has turned to, if a person that is white in color objects or has a disagreement with someone who is a person of color, then therefore we are racist because we do not agree," Hines said. "That is the total antithesis of what racism is, of what civil discourse means."
Hines went on to say that he took no joy in bringing the resolution forward. He said he had tried to work behind the scenes with Scott on the Police Department's leadership.
"This is the only tool that this board has left in order to speak out on our feelings about the leadership of our Police Department," Hines said.
During an abbreviated round of public comment, John Gilchrist, a past president of the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police, said he found no pleasure in speaking against someone who wears the police badge, but he warned city directors that officers were leaving at "a historic rate" because of the lack of leadership at the department.
"Crime will continue to rise and this agency will continue to self-destruct from the inside out if you don't make a decision to do something about the lack of leadership at this department," Gilchrist said.
Speaking in opposition to the resolution, activist Natalie James urged city officials not to avoid the issue of race.
"You say that race is not the issue, but it is," she told board members. "Let's not skirt around it. We've skirted around it long enough. You have to address the issue in order to fix it. Racism in Arkansas is a problem."
It was only after several city directors made comments indicating they would vote against the resolution -- including at-large City Director Dean Kumpuris, Ward 6 City Director Doris Wright and Ward 4 City Director Capi Peck -- that Hines moved to withdraw the measure.
Kumpuris said he would vote no on the resolution not because he did not support the measure, but because a public city board meeting was not a proper forum for discussion of the chief.
On Humphrey's abilities, Kumpuris alluded to Humphrey's temper and judgment as well as the Police Department's flagging recruiting numbers. Kumpuris described recurring instances of residents who have expressed to him their concerns about deteriorating public safety.
"I get one or two or three of these calls a day, and they're not from one area of town, they're from all over town," Kumpuris said. "It is an exceptionally bad time. ... It takes, in [an] exceptionally bad time, exceptional leadership to take care of a situation, and I don't think we have that in our chief."
Nevertheless, Kumpuris said, "I think it forms a very bad precedent that we bring up any personnel issue that we can debate."
He referred to other city personnel whom board members could bring in front of them, such as the city's finance director or public works director.
The mayor's responsibility, Kumpuris suggested, was to coach, educate and train the police chief to become "the man I hope he can be."
Wright defended Humphrey, saying discussion of the chief outside an executive session was inappropriate.
She said she had not received calls from people concerned about crime. "The calls that I have gotten have said that [Humphrey] is responsive," with people telling her they feel safer, Wright said.
Wright attributed the city's recent problem with vehicular caravanning -- large groups of drivers traveling together, often accompanied by drag racing or doughnuts and causing headaches for residents -- and shootings to the effects of poverty, unemployment and neglected neighborhoods, plus the covid-19 pandemic.
To say that crime "is caused by the lack of leadership in the Police Department is disingenuous as best," Wright said. "I will not be supporting this, and I would prefer that it have been pulled."