There’s a move afoot to force the city into hiring an assistant chief for the Pine Bluff Police Department, and it seems way too much too soon.
Alderman Ivan Whitfield, at a city Public Safety Committee meeting, introduced a draft ordinance that, if approved by the full council, would fill the job with the senior deputy chief until a permanent replacement could be named.
According to an article in The Pine Bluff Commercial, the ordinance would fill the position, which became vacant when Ricky Whitmore retired.
“I’m very concerned,” Whitfield told the committee members. “This is 2020 and this talks about the covid virus and it also should talk about the importance of crime-fighting. I know because I’ve sat in that seat, and the assistant chief should handle the day-to-day operations.”
We respect Whitfield’s experience on the police force and his belief that the city needs to fill the position. And it would be quite natural for Whitfield to express his opinions on the matter. But creating an ordinance goes too far. That forces everyone’s hand on the issue, and it specifies which person is actually put into the position — a person that may or may not be of the chief’s choosing.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
As a reminder, the current police chief, Kelvin Sergeant, is merely there out of respect for his years of service. Mayor Shirley Washington, fed up with crime in the city, fired Sergeant a few weeks ago because she said she did not think he was being responsive enough to what was going on in town. Then, out of compassion for his nearness to retirement, she reinstated him with the understanding that he will leave in nine — now eight — months.
Whitfield derided the arrangement to have Sergeant retire, wondering aloud if creating that type of exit strategy for him is even legal. Nevertheless, those were the terms under which Sergeant was placed back into his job.
The point is that things are in flux at the department. The mayor said she was going to use the intervening months to throw a wide net as she looks for a new chief. That hire is hers to make. And that new person would likely want to learn the lay of the land and get to know those in the top positions before picking a No. 2, considering those two would be working closely together on any number of projects.
Even Sergeant, whose life might be made easier with an immediate filling of the assistant chief position, was a thumbs-down on the idea. He measured his words carefully when he commented, but he did say that he would be working over the next several months to get the department ready for the next administration and that “based on the parameters that were presented to me, I’m going to leave the position open.”
Thankfully, the members of the committee seemed not too jazzed about Whitfield’s proposed ordinance either.
Council members Win Trafford and Joni Alexander said they would allow the measure to go before the full council, but that they would not support it if it made it to a vote.
“If Sergeant came to us and asked for this, I would support him in that,” Alexander told our reporter after the meeting. “But he said he doesn’t want it.”
She went on to say that she respected Whitfield’s passion on the subject, “but he’s not the chief. I wish he would step back and let Chief Sergeant run the department the way he thinks is best.”
Well said.