Larry House had no intention of becoming police chief, at least this early in his career.
“I was just trying to be a police officer,” House said. “Just with the circumstances of the other chief leaving and, I assume, the city wanting to hire within the department, I accepted the job.
“I’m not saying it wasn’t a goal, but I just enjoyed being a police officer.”
House, 54, was named the new Bald Knob police chief on April 6 at a Bald Knob City Council meeting. He replaces former Chief William McGlothlin, who resigned earlier this year after being with the department since 2004 and being chief since 2017.
“When [McGlothlin] turned in his letter of retirement, my immediate thought was to call Officer House and ask him if he was interested,” Bald Knob Mayor Barth Grayson said. “When I called, [Larry] was in McGlothlin’s office trying to persuade the former chief to stay.”
Grayson said that initially, House turned down the job of chief. Grayson said he starting looking at other options and placed advertisements for the job in local papers. He later pulled the advertisement after House was unable to persuade McGlothlin to stay.
“[House] was initially appointed as acting chief the day after McGlothlin retired and was officially appointed as chief in April at the council meeting,” Grayson said. “So that’s what we did, and everything has been working out fine.”
In January of last year, Grayson tried to fire McGlothlin as chief when Grayson was elected mayor, but his decision was overturned by the City Council.
“We’ve got long lines of chiefs who have been replaced,” Grayson said. “I am not too concerned about the turnover. They are mostly personnel issues that I can’t discuss and happened before I took over.”
The mayor said he picked House as the new chief because of his experience as a constable and the fact that he knows Bald Knob more than anybody else on the force.
“I know him well and I trust him,” Grayson said of House. “I trust he has the ability to be our chief. In light of the COVID-19 situation, I needed someone I could trust and knew Bald Knob.
“He also has the support of the department behind him, which is also important.”
House said that when he was elected constable of Cypert Township, he figured out really quickly that he needed qualifications and certifications in various areas. He said he started volunteering at the Police Department and eventually took a full-time position.
“I had those classes, and I was volunteering at the department and doing ride-alongs,” House said. “I enjoyed learning about police work, and it led to me accepting a position with the department.”
House was born and raised in De Queen but moved to Bald Knob in 1985 when he graduated from Morrilton High School. He said he came to Bald Knob because his mom wanted to grow strawberries and bought a strawberry farm there.
After high school, House owned a labor contractor business, doing contract work for paper companies such as International Paper and Georgia Pacific. Afterward, he worked in the oil-field business for eight years before retiring in 2012. He decided to join law enforcement after being retired for about two years.
“Police work is a calling, I think,” House said. “Either you have it or you don’t. It’s having a strong sense of right or wrong and making sure folks do right, and the ones who don’t get dealt with.
“We are protecting people, their rights and their property. I can’t really explain why I wanted to join — it was just like a bug, and most folks in law enforcement understand.”
House is currently one month in as chief, and he said he feels like he is “moving along real well.”
“I have to credit a lot of that to the two prior chiefs and the training I have received from them,” House said. “They kind of set the standard and taught me a lot about the police-work business.”
He said he may not have a lot of experience in law enforcement, but he believes his experience with his prior businesses play a big role in his job as chief. He said the administrative side of his businesses provided different experiences.
“I think we have got a good working relationship with the sheriff and other officers, and that’s important, too,” Grayson said.
Jeremy Tharp, who serves as vice president on the Bald Knob School Board, said he has been friends with House for about 10 years. Tharp said he used to drive a dirt-track race car for House and has done business with House and his family.
“He is a giving person,” Tharp said. “His whole family, to be honest, are very giving people. They do a lot for the community, and they tend to do quite a bit for the school as well.
“They are just really good people.”
Tharp said he believes House will do well as police chief because he has a passion for law enforcement.
“He really enjoys his job and what he does,” Tharp said. “He wants to keep our crime down and take care of the community and keep it in great shape.
“He understands the business end of things, and I think he can handle it well.”
Tharp said he hasn’t heard anything negative concerning House’s lack of experience.
“Anybody you talk to who knows Larry knows he puts 100 percent into what he does,” Tharp said. “And he has put 100 percent into the law enforcement thing since he started.
“He is not doing this to get paid, but as a service to the community.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.