The next chief of police in Pine Bluff will come from outside the city, if a successful candidate is identified.
Mayor Shirley Washington released the names of the top nine candidates to succeed outgoing Chief Kelvin Sergeant, and none of them are currently employed in Pine Bluff. It is not immediately known whether any of them have previous connections to the city.
The candidates, listed alphabetically, include:
Virgil Green of Oklahoma City, former Tulsa Public Schools Campus Police Department deputy chief major.
Robert Jones of Kingsland, Ga., chief of the Kingsland Police Department.
Carlos Kelly of Annapolis, Md., former Grambling State University police chief.
Jimmy Macon of Harpersville, Ala., chief of the Harpersville Police Department.
Selvain McQueen of Preston, Miss., former Columbus Police Department chief.
Vonyale Montgomery of Memphis, a lieutenant in the Memphis Police Department.
Adam Nielson of Brighton, Colo., a sergeant in the Westminster Police Department.
Terry Ross of Alvin, Texas, chief of the Danbury Independent School District Police Department.
Derrick Threadgill of Little Rock, a sergeant in the Little Rock Police Department.
More than 30 applications for the position were taken during April, Washington said. The committee then started reviewing them to choose the top nine candidates to interview via Zoom this month.
"We're reviewing the candidates in lots of three," Washington said. "We did the first round of interviews on May 5, then we did three more on May 12, and we interviewed two of the last three on May 19. The last one will be interviewed on May 24 because he was unavailable to be interviewed on the 19th."
Kelvin Sergeant, 49, has been on medical leave since March 27 and will retire July 1 after 26 years on the Pine Bluff police force, including the last three as chief. He declined to go into specifics about his health challenges.
"My progress report with my physician ... it's better," Sergeant said. "That's a good thing, personally, for me."
Assistant Chief Kelven Hadley, who, like Sergeant, joined the Pine Bluff Police force in 1995, is acting as chief.
Each candidate is asked up to 28 questions -- up to four by each search committee panelist.
"We have a round where we ask two to three of our questions," said Kymara Seals, who represents the community activism sector on the panel. "And then we have a final round that's a little faster, where we just ask one question. Yeah, it's been a good process and very organized. I'm very pleased, so far."
A rating system is then used to pare down the group of nine to the final three, who will be invited to Pine Bluff for face-to-face interviews with committee and community members and a tour of the city.
Although the committee will recommend the successful candidate, Washington said she will make the final decision. She hopes to name Sergeant's successor by mid-June.
Seals, policy director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel and president of the UAPB/AM&N National Alumni Association, said she has asked candidates about their position on community policing. She is also one of the conveners of United Citizens of Pine Bluff, which last week released results of a community survey that showed 40% of citizens who responded don't feel safe in Pine Bluff, more than 20% don't feel safe in their homes at night, and that 7 out of 10 say the city is not clean and attractive.
"When we've been talking to people, we've been asked about community policing. So, we definitely need to know their position and where they stand on it," she said,
Seals defined community policing as a police force getting out of police cars and getting into the community.
"Back in the day, they used to walk the beat," she said. "They got to know the community. Get out of the air-conditioned cars, get in the community and get to know the people that you're serving.
"When officers get to know people in the communities, it develops relationships, so we want people being able to know who their officers are in their communities that's serving them. Study after study has shown that when a police department is engaged in community policing, crime decreases. That's the goal."
Seals said one police chief she interviewed conducts a bike patrol, which she considers community policing.
Seals has also quizzed candidates on training for officers around people with mental illnesses, addressing the image of crime in Pine Bluff and whether corruption in the police department, if it exists, will be addressed and how.
Other committee members include Pine Bluff Alderman Glen Brown Jr., representing local government; Tunica County, Miss., Sheriff K.C. Hamp and Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy deputy director Fred Weatherspoon, both representing law enforcement; Pine Bluff First Assembly of God associate pastor Josh Martinez, representing the faith-based community; and Southeast Engravers owner Tom Brown and Economic Development Alliance for Jefferson County CEO Allison Thompson, both representing local business.
Sergeant plans to enjoy "rest and relaxation for a while" in the immediate future, adding he's not retiring from working but from working for the city of Pine Bluff. He was asked what he would want to see in the next chief.
"You know, I don't really know how to address that, being honest with you," Sergeant said. "Whatever our mayor feels that is sufficient for our community. I'm going to still live here in the community, and I want good leadership for our agency and our men and women of the department, so I still have a vested interest in making sure our community is safe, so [I prefer] an individual that's driven to do that."
Washington fired Sergeant last Aug. 26 over concerns about an uptick in violence and a lack of department response to repeated acts of street racing, vehicle caravans and burnouts in parking lots, but reinstated him two days later. Upon his return, Sergeant issued Washington his notice he would retire in July.
"The biggest thing I enjoyed about it is working with the men and women of the department," Sergeant said. "Although a lot of the issues we faced were challenging, but trying to come up with plans and to meet the demands of the things that were going on in our community give you a sense of accomplishment when we were able to follow the situation or make an arrest on someone that's causing a problem for the community. Those are things you look back on and you enjoy the relationships you build with the individuals. Those are things that you cherish and you'll miss."
