Chapmond pinned as police chief
Chris Chapmond, a former assistant Hot Springs police chief, received his chief’s badge at a pinning ceremony on Thursday, saying he plans to take the department to the “next level” through a “strong community partnership.”
“We do have a great police department; there’s not a lot of things that are broken,” Chapmond said. “We’re just going to take our policing efforts, our community policing, our stance on crime, to the next level, and we’re going to do it through a very strong community partnership.”
Chapmond, a 22-year veteran of the police department, had previously served as assistant Hot Springs police chief since June 2016. He was named police chief in
Bluffton, S.C., in 2018.
“I want to thank God for giving me the opportunity to come back home and serve the community that has been so great to me and my family over the years,” Chapmond said during the pinning ceremony at Horner Hall in the Hot Springs Convention Center. “From a professional standpoint, there’s no greater honor than to be asked to come back. So, from a professional standpoint, this is the pinnacle of my career and I want to thank each and every one of you who played a part in that.”
He added that he looks forward to “hitting the ground running.”
City Manager Bill Burrough, a friend of Chapmond’s since childhood, conducted the pinning.
“Chief Chapmond is a visionary leader willing to accept challenges and new concepts,” Burrough said. “He believes in community policing, and has worked to perfect that concept while balancing a hard stance on dealing with criminal activity. Community policing is more than a concept; it’s a philosophy, and he truly believes in that.”
He said he has had the pleasure of working with Chapmond for 18 of the 22 years that he was at the police department.
“I know his work ethic, his admiration and love for our city, community and the Hot Springs Police Department,” Burrough said. “I can tell you he holds all of those as paramount.
“The position that he has accepted comes with great responsibility; to be the leader of our men and women who keep us safe day-in and day-out; rain, sleet or shine; at risk of their own safety to protect us.”
Burrough said through all of the challenges both the community and the country has faced since March, no one has faced more challenges than the city’s police department.
“In my opinion, we have a great police force, a truly remarkable police force that I would put up against any other department in this nation,” he said. “They deserve a great leader, and I am confident that Chief Chris Chapmond is that leader. It is my honor to pin the chief of police badge on our new Chief of Police Chris Chapmond.”
Burrough said the badge pinning ceremony is the culmination of many weeks and several hours of interviews by both the interview panel he formed and the board of directors.
He went on to thank Linda Franklin, president of the NAACP Local Chapter 6013; Wayne Smith, general manager of Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort; Sam Stathakis, chairman of the Hot Springs Civil Service Commission; and Stephanie Nehus, superintendent of Hot Springs School District, for serving on the interview panel.
“We were fortunate to receive a great applicant pool as a result of the job posting of chief of police here in Hot Springs, Ark.,” Burrough said. “It was a nationwide search; we received applicants from all over the nation, all over the country, and as we concluded that process I was confident that Chief Chris Chapmond was most qualified and the right person for this position.”