It’s so reassuring to see chronically tumultuous Tontitown help put its
dysfunctional reputation to rest by hiring a police chief with a disturbing work history of unpaid suspensions and lawsuits alleging excessive force during his time as a policeman in nearby Springdale.
There’s also the internal investigation involving Kristopher Arthur that Springdale Police Chief Kathy O’Kelley said was beginning when Arthur resigned to join Tontitown as a policeman earlier this year. O’Kelley didn’t elaborate, except to say her department wouldn’t even consider rehiring Arthur.
A newspaper headline the other day noted that Tontitown Mayor Jack Beckford (who I assume is a sane and rational man) appointed Arthur as Tontitown’s police chief while fully aware of his troubling background. Beckford blithely dismissed legitimate concerns over his appointee’s record: “Stuff happens. It’s the nature of the beast.”
A news story by reporter Steve Caraway (attributing incidents to official reports) detailed Arthur’s problems in Springdale beginning in August 2010. That was his initial suspension without pay for five days after leaving patrol on the overnight shift to attend a party, then heading to a restaurant with party goers without notifying the dispatcher. He also lost the right to take his patrol unit home with him for six months.
In September 2011, Arthur was suspended for a day without pay after he shattered a car window with his police flashlight. Arthur had thrown the flashlight at a passing motorist after the driver had struck an officer who’d been directing traffic at Rodeo of the Ozarks. The officer sustained minor injuries.
In September 2012, Arthur again was suspended for 10 days without pay for using a stun gun on a detainee who was cuffed to a bench while seated on the floor inside the police station. Video showed Arthur, who wasn’t then assigned to duty as a jailer, trying to force the man to sit on the bench. The man refused and instead rolled beneath it. Arthur removed the detainee’s handcuffs and twice used a stun gun to force him onto the bench.
That strikes me as a lot of unpaid suspensions within a fairly short period. And there’s that publicly unexplained investigation mentioned by O’Kelley that was starting when Arthur scrammed for Tontitown.
There also were two lawsuits filed in Springdale, each naming Tontitown’s new chief. (The city’s first chief, Denny Upton, resigned suddenly after spending just months on the job.)
A judge dismissed one of those civil suits. The other remains active,Caraway reported. The dismissed case involved a man who alleged Arthur and another Springdale officer used excessive force, claiming Arthur hit him on the head with his flashlight during a struggle and used a stun gun on a woman in the room. The man and the woman were arrested, but the woman was later released without charges. The suit was dismissed when the plaintiff failed to file legal replies.
The second suit also alleges Arthur and another Springdale officer used excessive force during an arrest. The plaintiff contends he was handcuffed, shot with a stun gun several times and repeatedly struck.
It strikes me as anything but an admirable record for any “peace officer” chosen for reasons many don’t understand to lead Tontitown’s police force.
What I found equally odd about the choice was Beckford’s steadfast determination to defend his appointee’s troubled work history. The news account quoted the mayor saying such lawsuits are just part of life for police departments and: “The past is the past. Let the man do his job.” Mayor Beckford, it’s beyond naive to say a policeman with this kind of history in a relatively short period shouldn’t set more red flags to flapping than a Razorback football game in Fayetteville, at least in the minds of reasonable adults I know. Did it not trouble you that his former boss in Springdale said she wouldn’t rehire Arthur?
Arthur’s response to his far less-than-exemplary record for any chief of police also caused me to rub my eyes twice. “What happened in Springdale has no bearing on what I do now,” he told Caraway.
Good grief, Chief! Anyone’s history clearly reflects patterns of previous chosen behaviors, including my own. Of course, the patterns of a person’s past choices and actions are highly relevant to their basic nature and attitudes toward both their life and work.
I’ve yet to see anything that convinces me that Chief Arthur’s established patterns of behavior and choices over the past few years are limited to the time he spent on the same Springdale force that would not rehire him today.
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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.
Editorial, Pages 85 on 09/22/2013