Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner has accepted an offer to lead the Syracuse, N.Y., Police Department.
The Little Rock department announced that Buckner had accepted the Syracuse job in a news release sent out about 9 Friday morning while Buckner was introducing himself at a news conference in Syracuse.
Buckner, 49, had called earlier Friday and told Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore that he would accept the job. Moore said Buckner has been in Syracuse since Tuesday interviewing and meeting with members of the community.
Buckner's last day on the job in Little Rock will be Nov. 16, Moore said. Buckner took over as Little Rock's chief in June 2014. He came to Little Rock from the Louisville Metro Police Department in Kentucky, where he served in various positions for more than 20 years.
Moore met Friday with the department's assistant chiefs to outline the steps for naming an interim chief and beginning the search for a new chief. After the meeting, Moore said no interim chief had been named yet and that the official search would begin early next week.
The interim chief will be named from within the department, but the city will advertise nationally for the new chief, Moore said. He said he hopes the new chief will be "someone committed to Little Rock, someone who understands the importance of community policing and who focuses on officer safety."
The city likely will rely on national advertising as opposed to hiring a search firm, and likely would advertise for 45 to 60 days, Moore said.
Assistant Chief Hayward Finks and Assistant Chief Alice Fulk said after Friday's meeting that they were "undecided" on whether to make a bid for police chief. Assistant Chief Wayne Bewley said it was "very unlikely" he would apply for the position.
The announcement came on the same day The Washington Post published a second opinion piece about the Little Rock department concerning what the article described as a lack of police vetting and oversight in the hiring of Josh Hastings, a former officer who was fired after fatally shooting 15-year-old Bobby Moore III in 2012. The newspaper's other opinion piece questioned the Police Department's use of no-knock warrants and raids.
Buckner's departure also comes at a time when the city faces a discrimination lawsuit which in part claims that Buckner created a hostile work environment for members of the Black Police Officer Association, and denied promotions and preferred positions to black officers.
"We're a large department, and we're going to have our challenges," Moore said. "We try to work our way through them, but I think this is a good job. It's a tough job. The next chief is inheriting a great organization. We have outstanding police officers in the department, and I believe the next chief will come in ready to work but also inheriting a great department."
Buckner briefly addressed some of the ongoing controversies in Little Rock during a news conference Friday in New York.
"I'm aware of the lawsuit," Buckner said. "We had a well-documented practice in Little Rock that we do not discuss ongoing legal matters. We believe ... our officers will be shown that their actions were appropriate."
Buckner said Syracuse and its Police Department fit the model that he prefers, and that the situation would be similar to Little Rock in some ways.
The Syracuse Police Department has a budget of $48 million and serves a population of 143,000, according to application materials for the position. Syracuse has 424 sworn officers, fewer than the Little Rock department's approximately 500 sworn officers, 198,600 residents and a 2018 adopted budget of $75 million.
Buckner's salary in Little Rock was $146,981, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported. No salary information for the Syracuse position was immediately available Friday.
"Syracuse has a lot of the same dynamics and challenges ... that I currently have in Little Rock," Buckner said before later addressing local viewers. "To Little Rock, I greatly appreciate you. You have certainly removed a number of my professional blind spots in my 4½-year tenure in Little Rock. I can tell you that I walk in here today in Syracuse a very confident man because of the things I've experienced in Little Rock."
Syracuse also has faced recent scrutiny after a jury last month awarded $1.5 million to a man who said he was beaten by police. News outlet Syracuse.com said as part of the lawsuit award that the man requested that the mayor hire the next chief of police from outside the department.
Buckner answered questions during the news conference about an incident from early in his Little Rock tenure when he lost his service weapon.
"Let's talk about the gun," Buckner said. "I purchased a home in Little Rock and moved from my apartment to the home, my weapon came up missing. The missteps were on my part that I didn't take the steps to properly secure the weapon. ... I was issued a written reprimand, as I should have been. I also paid for the weapon."
The weapon was recovered later and a Little Rock man faced a charge of receiving stolen property.
Buckner could not be reached Friday by an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter for additional comments.
Community leaders said Friday that Little Rock's new chief must bring a sense of unity to the area.
"For him, I'm glad," said Annie Mable McDaniel Abrams, a community activist and retired educator. "I am so grateful that he was selected by Syracuse. I know that community. They will benefit from his hiring. As for him, I appreciate the things I know he did, but I told him when he came here there were many problems that he as a black chief of police he would not be able to solve."
Abrams said divisions in the department must be rectified, and that such unity wouldn't likely come until there are no longer separate fraternal orders for black officers.
"That is an institutional message that's being sent that even black police and white police ... are not able to be under one roof," Abrams said. "The fraternal order is supposed to be the one that negotiates on behalf of all of police. The statement for the black policemen is they have to be the ones to fight because they are still being discriminated against."
Kathy Wells, president of the Coalition of Greater Little Rock Neighborhoods, agreed that racial divides within the Police Department bleed over into racial divides in the city.
"My personal observation for many years has been that we need to work much harder to improve black police-community relations," she said. "I said that when Chief Buckner was hired ... and I say that's still true today."
A Section on 11/03/2018