38-year LR police veteran retiring
Captain, one-time ‘face of Little Rock,’ was 1 of 6 relatives in department
Little Rock police are seeking a new commander of their Southwest Field Services Division after the retirement of 38-year veteran Capt. Terry Hastings.
His departure leaves one member of the Hastings-Roberts family of Little Rock policemen remaining at the department. The family had a record six officers on the force from 2007 to 2011.
Police spokesman Lt. Sidney Allen said 36-year veteran Capt. Patrice Smith, the department’s head of special projects, will temporarily lead the division’s 97 sworn officers and three civilian personnel.
Allen said the search for Hastings’ replacement was underway and that the department expects to have a list of candidates by the end of March. That’s when Hastings’ pension officially begins. He stepped down and is using accrued vacation time until then.
Police Chief Kenton Buckner will appoint a new commander of the division from the top three eligible candidates, who are determined through behavioral assessments and competency tests. An experience evaluation conducted by a third-party panel also affects a candidate’s standing. Education and seniority are factors, as well.
Lieutenants seeking the promotion to captain must have held their current rank for at least two years.
Hastings was paid $80,340 per year in the position.
Allen, speaking on behalf of Buckner, said the chief had no comment regarding Hastings’ nearly four decades at the department. The chief will provide a statement when Hastings officially retires, but gave “no particular reason” why he declined to discuss Hastings’ departure before then, Allen said.
Hastings, who had been department spokesman for 18 years when former chief Stuart Thomas promoted him to captain in June 2012, was lauded by other city officials at a Board of Directors meeting last week.
“This individual, for so many years, I’ve heard people refer to him as the face of Little Rock because he was on TV and in so many community events,” City Manager Bruce Moore said.
Hastings’ career with the
department began July 6, 1976, as a patrol officer. He became department spokesman in 1994 and received a commendation from the department two years later for developing Little Rock’s Most Wanted, a branch of the Crime-Stoppers program. Police reported that 60 of 75 suspects identified that year in Little Rock’s Most Wanted were arrested.
The Arkansas chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators named Hastings its Communicator of the Year in 2009.
The southwest division, under Hastings’ leadership, made 56 percent more arrests for driving while intoxicated than the downtown division and 96 percent more DWI arrests than the northwest division, according to police data.
Hastings was out of town and did not return calls seeking comment this week. He told the board of directors last week that his retirement plans were simple.
“My lovely wife and I, we’re going to do some traveling and enjoy the grandkids,” he said.
He also said he was grateful for his long career.
“I’ve worked with some of the best people in the world. I told Chief Buckner you are the seventh chief that I’ve worked for, and I’ve enjoyed it,” he said.
Hastings was 10 years into his law enforcement career when his Field Services Division supervisor, Assistant Chief Wayne Bewley, joined Little Rock Police as a cadet.
“I’d often kid Terry about, ‘How often did you have to feed the horses when you were on patrol?’” Bewley said, speaking before the Board of Directors. “All kidding aside, I think that Terry has served with honor and integrity. I think he has definitely done himself proud. He has been one that, over the course of time, never lost pride in being a Little Rock police officer.”
Ward 7 City Director B.J. Wyrick and Mayor Mark Stodola praised Hastings’ reliability, saying he could always be counted on to provide city officials with information on crime and the department.
“We’ve got to have somebody as good as you coming to southwest,” Wyrick said.
Hastings’ brother, Ron, retired in April 2011 after 38 years with the department, most as a motorcycle officer. They finished their careers without incidents of life-threatening violence or legal trouble, according to a search of Democrat-Gazette archives.
That hasn’t been the case for their family members.
The brothers each had a son join Little Rock police, as well as a nephew. All three have faced lawsuits over fatal encounters on the job.
Ron Hastings’ son, Clay, left Little Rock and moved to Iowa shortly before a civil suit was filed against him in November 2012. The suit alleged that Clay Hastings, then a detective, and two other officers used excessive force when they shot and killed William Spradling, 25, of Sherwood, in July 2008.
The officers said they were questioning Spradling about a burglary when he pointed a gun at them. They were exonerated by an internal investigation, but Spradling’s family sued. The family withdrew the suit last year, but can re-file at another date.
Terry Hastings’ son, Joshua, was charged with manslaughter in the 2012 shooting death of 15-year-old car burglary suspect Bobby Joe Moore III. Prosecutors dropped the charge against Joshua Hastings last April after two mistrials. The slaying still cost him his job, and he sought reinstatement before withdrawing his appeal in November.
A federal excessive force suit against Joshua Hastings is ongoing. Cedric McSwain, 43, is suing him and two other lawmen over claims that they beat him during his 2010 arrest on charges of driving while intoxicated, resisting arrest and refusing to submit. The officers have denied using excessive force and said they brought McSwain to the ground because he was unruly. The officers said they were on the lookout for a suspect who had fled police at the time.
Officer Jason Roberts, a nephew of the Hastings brothers, is the only member of the family still wearing a Little Rock police uniform. Roberts and another officer shot 28-yearold Landris Hawkins to death in 2009 after a knife-wielding Hawkins turned the weapon on his grandmother and an infant. Hawkins’ mother filed suit in federal court in November 2012. She dropped the suit last May.
Terry Hastings had a sonin-law, Carl West, who was an officer. He has since moved on from the job.