SPRINGDALE -- City leaders, community members and Police Department personnel gathered Tuesday in City Council chambers to celebrate the retirement of Police Chief Kathy O'Kelley after 9 1/2 years leading the department.
O'Kelley, 61, gave Mayor Doug Sprouse notice in May her last day would be June 30.
AT A GLANCE
Kathy O’Kelley
Accomplishments as police chief at Springdale Police Department
• She created the department’s crime suppression unit.
• She created the department’s in-house narcotics unit.
• She created the department’s nuisance abatement program.
• She expanded the department’s school resource officer program.
• She modernized the agency through technology, like mobile data terminals, in the police cars.
Source: Staff Report
Two homicides in March and April that police have said are gang-related had nothing to do with her decision to retire, O'Kelley said then. She told the mayor last year she planned to retire in 2015.
O'Kelley wrote in her resignation letter her decision had been "a heart-head struggle" and a difficult one to make.
The City Council chambers were crowded at Tuesday's event, with people spilling into the hall. Several officials spoke.
Lt. Scott Lewis, public information officer for the department, said he served under O'Kelley for the last 9 1/2 years. O'Kelley is the second-longest serving police chief, according to information from the department.
Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder said he got to know O'Kelley through FBI National Academy Associates. They played a game of golf and she beat him, he said.
Helder commended the forward thinking of the Civil Service Commission that hired O'Kelley. He said she's leaving the department better than she found it.
Springdale Alderman Rick Culver said O'Kelley's retirement was a sad and happy day at the same time. O'Kelley made the department something to be proud of, he said. He said he hopes changes she put in place will stay.
Jim Rollins, superintendent of the Springdale School District, said O'Kelley had been a phenomenal leader in the partnership between the schools and police. He said he's thankful for her work with the schools.
Capt. Mike Peters will be the acting police chief. Peters has said he intends to keep the department operating as it is now.
Peters also spoke Tuesday. He approached the front of the room with other department employees. A slide listing O'Kelley's accomplishments as chief was projected behind him before switching to slides with photos.
The crowd laughed as a photo of O'Kelley and Lewis appeared with a speech bubble over O'Kelley's head that read, "Keep it up! [You're] still not getting out of PIO!"
As the slides changed, Peters said O'Kelley leads by example and has shown cultural awareness and sensitivity. He said she managed a plan to diversify the department, and that will continue. He also said she improved department pay to be comparable to other local agencies.
O'Kelley worked at the North Little Rock Police Department, then the University of Arkansas Police Department before being hired as the Springdale chief in December 2005, according to a work biography. She graduated from the FBI National Academy in 1999.
At the same time O'Kelley is preparing to retire, there are changes taking place in the department.
Officials plan to add 10 officers to the department over the next year to 1½ years. The department will also use its crime suppression unit again.
O'Kelley said earlier this year she wants officers' shifts in the unit to be rearranged so specific issues in the city can be addressed on a 24-hour basis.
O'Kelley spoke last. She said success is a journey and not a destination, adding how a person performs on that journey makes the difference.
"I feel like we've done our best," she said. "We've done it as a team."
NW News on 06/24/2015