Officials to rotate as interim police chief until replacement hired

Each of the Little Rock Police Department’s three assistant chiefs will serve as the agency’s interim head for one month until a new chief is hired.

A memo sent Tuesday by City Manager Bruce Moore to all department personnel states that the process to select a new chief officially began Tuesday, a little more than a week after current Police Chief Kenton Buckner accepted a job to lead the Syracuse, N.Y., Police Department.

Moore estimated that advertising the position, interviewing candidates and selecting a new chief would take approximately 90 days. He said the city put out the national advertisement Tuesday.

Buckner’s last day on the job in Little Rock will be Friday.

According to Moore’s memo, Assistant Chief Alice Fulk will serve as interim chief from Saturday to Dec. 17. Assistant Chief Hayward Finks will serve from Dec. 18 to Jan. 18, and Assistant Chief Wayne Bewley will serve from Jan. 19 to Feb. 19.

Bewley and Fulk said it made sense for all three assistant chiefs to rotate through the interim position, as they each have routinely taken over Buckner’s duties while he’s out of town.

“They’re all going to support each other,” Moore said.

Moore said that if one of the assistant chiefs is interested in Buckner’s job, then that person’s tenure would serve as a tryout period.

Fulk said none of the interim chiefs would make any big departmental changes but that they would likely have the last word in disciplinary issues resolved during their terms.

Fulk oversees the department’s executive bureau.

She said she did not know if she would apply for the top job but that she was thinking and praying about her decision.

When asked if she thought the city would pick someone from inside the department as the new chief, she said she was sure there was someone qualified within the 594-person department. Moore said the city has selected about half of its chiefs from inside the department.

Bewley said he didn’t think he would go after the chief job based on where he is in his career, but he wouldn’t rule it out. He has been with the department for 32 years.

“You hate to say never,” he said.

In his current role, Bewley supervises the investigative bureau.

Finks could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but he told an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter at the time Buckner’s departure became public that he was undecided on whether to make a bid for police chief. He leads the field services bureau.

The application deadline for the position is Dec. 31, Moore said. Little Rock will have a new mayor come Jan. 1.