Chief hopeful to attend forum

Ex-colleague calls Louisville lawman a strategic thinker

After more than a decade spent working the street, the Louisville lawman looking to become Little Rock's next police chief has spent the past five years in high command.

Kenton Buckner, 45, was promoted to assistant chief in the Louisville Metro Police Department in January 2011 but started his career as a patrolman in 1993, quickly moving up to working gangs, drugs and violence as a detective in a city with a history of gangs, drugs and violence.

Buckner is formally interviewing to replace retiring chief Stuart Thomas and will participate in a public reception and forum tonight at 5:30 p.m. at The Centre at University Park, 6401 W. 12th St.

Little Rock's assistant chief, Eric Higgins, appeared at the same event last week, and on Thursday the executive chief deputy of the Tarrant County, Texas, sheriff's office will appear before the public while in town for interviews.

When Buckner started, he immediately impressed veteran narcotics detectives as a quick thinker and natural investigator, including friend, former colleague and current Louisville City Council member David James.

"I met him... I thought he was very intelligent, he was a strategic thinker and was willing to learn and listen," James said. "He's a strategic thinker. He doesn't think about next week. He'll think about the effects of something five years from now."

Buckner, citing a "respect" for the hiring "process" being conducted by Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore, declined to be interviewed.

Calls to Buckner's current chief and former colleagues were not returned. A call to Buckner's former boss, Robert White, who is now the police chief in Denver, was answered, and White said he would return a call if Buckner said it was OK for him to talk to the media.

White did not return the call.

Buckner and James did a lot of work together on the street, according to James, who declined to go into detail on the types of case work, other than to say that Buckner was never afraid to reach out and ask for advice from someone who knew more than he did.

It wasn't until the mid-1990s that James saw Buckner's ability to work outside the department and that he saw his old partner's true skill: communication.

"We had some police-involved shootings in which Caucasian officers were involved in shootings with African-American suspects and that created some community tensions," James said. "Kenton was one of the people that the Police Department used to go out into the community and talk to the community about what had happened and why it happened instead of everyone just guessing."

Added James: "People may not like it but they can accept it when they know the facts, and he was very good about going out and talking about the facts."

More than 20 years later, James started working with his former colleague at a city level, discussing policy, strategy and community relations instead of the nuances of warrants and street-rips.

After five years as a sergeant in homicide, training and internal investigations, Buckner rocketed up the ranks, getting promoted three times in four years.

As assistant chief of the department's support bureau, he has reorganized detective divisions, managed community relations and run the department's COMPSTAT program, the crime data analysis service used by departments to track and predict crime.

He currently earns $115,226 in Louisville and is vying for a job that will pay anywhere from $91,038 to $140,199.

Of the many qualities that led Buckner up the ladder, James said being laconic, or a "yes-man," wasn't one of them.

"I'm a council person, I'm a politician and most elected officials, well, it's a lot of talk, a lot of big words and not enough meat to them sometimes," James said. "Kenton's really good at cutting through all that... he's not gonna sugarcoat it. He's gonna tell it like it is. I'm more interested in someone saying what it is than selling me a pile of turds with sugar on it and telling me it tastes good."

Community organizer and Louisville City Councilwoman Attica Scott shared James' assessment. Buckner, for better or worse, is a straight shooter.

"He's very direct and I appreciate that," Scott said. "There's not a lot of room for being indirect. ... We have too many serious issues in our community."

Scott said the two often don't see eye to eye.

When there were allegations of excessive force used by officers on crowds in recent years, Scott said Buckner sold the company line that she expected from lawmen working in the chain of command.

"We don't want our folks being treated like they're in a military state. ... so it's not always strong arm [tactics], the people with guns saying 'what we're doing is right' instead of them saying 'we'll do something better,'" Scott said. "I hope that he will take his experiences of working with elected officials and community leaders to help grow as a leader, to learn to work in partnership with people."

A fellow Louisville community organizer, and former convict, thinks Buckner understands the value of community policing and community relations better than most.

Christopher Anthony Bryant, better known as Christopher 2X after he changed his names 15 years ago following his final stint in prison for drug-related charges, has worked alongside Buckner as a community advocate and organizer in the poorer, higher-crime neighborhoods in west Louisville.

Christopher 2X said that he and Buckner both value early intervention for at-risk youths and that police departments need to focus on community partnerships just as much as policing tactics.

"He's a great mediator," Christoper 2X said. "He's really willing to bring those individuals around the table regardless of their past. ... he's never demeaned someone because of their past. It's about what you can do now to help public safety."

Added Christopher 2X: "I can't find anyone in metro Louisville, I'm talking about the ones in crime... the ones looking for a new lease in life and the people in better pockets of life... I don't know anyone who can speak ill will of his efforts."

Thomas Clay, a Louisville attorney, said he can think of one or two who can.

Clay represented former detective Barron Morgan and Morgan's former supervisor, Lt. Richard Pearson, in lawsuits against the department claiming that Buckner retaliated against his clients for sharing proof of innocence of a woman who they say had been wrongfully convicted of murder.

In May 2012, Morgan interviewed a suspect in an unrelated case when the suspect confessed to three killings, including the slaying of Kyle Breeden, whose case was cold for eight years before a Kentucky State Police cold-case detective solved it in a matter of weeks and arrested Susan King, who was ultimately convicted and sent to prison.

Morgan went up the chain of command and contacted the state police, who sent in its original investigator, Sgt. Todd Harwood, to interview the suspect.

The interview recording went missing, but Harwood claimed that the suspect lied to the Louisville investigators while the suspect later told detectives that Harwood threatened him to keep his mouth shut.

After getting permission from his chain of command, Morgan shared the revelation with the Kentucky Innocence Project and, eventually, King was released from prison after serving six years on the murder charge.

According to Morgan's complaint, Buckner called him and chastised him for working with "the other side" in the innocence project, and through a pattern of admonishment and retaliation led by Buckner, Morgan was demoted to patrol.

Clay said that political relationships between brass in Louisville and in the Kentucky State Police were what drove an effort to quiet his clients who sought to free King.

Pearson was eventually reassigned and is under investigation for an unrelated incident. He claimed the actions were retaliatory for helping his detective help free King from prison. He lost his reinstatement lawsuit on May 1 following a 12-hour jury deliberation.

Morgan, however, won a $450,000 settlement from the city a week earlier but failed to be reinstated as a narcotics detective.

Christopher 2X said that the kind of behavior ascribed to Buckner in those cases is out of character for the man he works with.

"That [lawsuit] might be a rocky road as it relates to their internal fight, but the bottom line is if you look at the totality of his work... [you] see that people are willing to give him -- and still give him -- that respect as it relates to the nuts and bolts of a working community."

Metro on 05/12/2014

Upcoming Events