University of Arkansas at Little Rock Police Chief Edward L. Smith has accepted an invitation to serve with a volunteer review committee responsible for screening applicants and selecting finalists for the Pine Bluff police chief’s post, Mayor Debe Hollingsworth said Tuesday.
Smith has nearly 40 years of law enforcement experience and has served as a police chief in eight Oklahoma cities.
Meanwhile, Mike Carter of the Jefferson Insurance and Financial Services Inc. firm of Pine Bluff has agreed to moderate proceedings of the five-member panel.
Committee members serving with Smith are retirees Wanda Neal and Doug Smith, the Rev. Kerry Price Sr. and the Rev. Jesse Turner. Hollingsworth, Neal and Price are former members of the now-defunct Pine Bluff Civil Service Commission, which oversaw selection of fire and police chiefs.
Forty-two applicants are seeking the permanent police chief’s job.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Before inviting Smith to serve on the review panel, Hollingsworth said she felt it was best that finalists have knowledge of police agencies of similar size to PBPD, and that a consulting former chief would have no bias toward either promoting from within or going “outside the department” in “picking the best person for the job.”
A field of five finalists will be whittled down to three, and those candidates will be interviewed by the city council’s public safety committee, which will make recommendations to Hollingsworth. The mayor has final say-so in the selection process.
“I want to make sure this is done correctly,” Hollingsworth recently said of the selection effort. “I want this to be totally fair.”