LR police-policy draft gives panel say on assistant chiefs

A proposal to give the Little Rock police chief the majority influence in the selection of assistant chiefs has been revised.

Under the latest draft, which the city released late Monday, a candidate will interview for the position with a panel that will include the chief or a police designee, a city executive chosen by the city manager or Human Resources director, and a law enforcement officer with the rank of assistant chief or higher from outside Little Rock.

Under a previous draft requested by Chief Kenton Buckner, the chief alone conducted the interview.

The interview accounts for half of a candidate’s 100-point evaluation. It includes questions on experience, judgment, interpersonal skills and stress-coping ability. The other half of a candidate’s evaluation is determined through an experience review conducted by a panel of law enforcement personnel from outside the state.

The police chief then chooses a new assistant chief from the three highest-scoring candidates.

The Little Rock Civil Service Commission had been ready to vote on the previous proposal Dec. 11, but it was tabled so city officials could further evaluate its legality under state civil-service laws.

The policy must be in compliance with a 1987 Arkansas Supreme Court ruling that allows oral examinations in the promotion process for firefighters and police officers, provided that the interviews are “fair,” “impartial” and “free of favoritism, politics or other impropriety.”

The court issued the opinion in the case of Bennett v. Blytheville Civil Service Commission, in which a former

Blytheville Fire Department lieutenant was denied a promotion to captain and challenged a circuit court’s ruling upholding the decision.

Little Rock Human Resources Employment Manager Kathleen Walker said the city revised its proposal to ensure “the integrity of the process.”

“It just didn’t have the methodology, and this is more consistent and matches all of our practices where we have panels,” she said. “And in public safety promotions, it’s not unusual to have a civilian on the panel. That’s closer to what we’ve done previously.”

The latest draft, which goes before the Civil Service Commission on Feb. 26, adds that “reasonable efforts will be made to ensure gender and race diversity” on the interview panel, and allow a candidate to review and appeal the outcome of his interview.

The diversity wording is in the city’s current policy, but was not in the first draft of the proposed policy.

Buckner, as he has in the past, declined to comment about the proposed guidelines. Police spokesman Lt. Sidney Allen, speaking on Buckner’s behalf, said the chief is “waiting until the final decision is made.”

The Little Rock Police Department has three assistant chiefs, none of whom reportedly have plans to leave their posts in the near future. They are Wayne Bewley of the Field Services Bureau, Hayward Finks of the Investigative and Support Bureau, and Eric Higgins of the Executive Bureau. Each has been with the department more than 25 years.

Higgins, the most senior of the three, is paid $99,945 per year. Bewley and Finks are each paid $94,760 per year.

Captains seeking promotion to assistant chief must have held their current positions for at least two years and have completed 15 hours of college courses — six in English and writing — to be eligible.

City Manager Bruce Moore said the revisions appear to set the promotion process on a more “prudent course.”

“What I always say to our departments, and especially the police and fire and HR, is that we want a process that is fair, that really gives the hiring authority at the end of the process a good cadre of people from which to choose from,” he said. “But I also think the integrity of the process is important. So anytime there’s issues raised, positive and negative, we try to look at those going forward and improve our process.”

Little Rock police Capts. Patrice Smith and Alice Fulk sued the department and the city in 2012 and 2013, respectively, after being denied promotions to assistant chief. Fulk alleged a “glass ceiling” at the department, and Smith said she was denied the promotion because of her race and sex. She is black.

The lawsuits are ongoing.