Texarkana chief not among finalists for Hot Springs job

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — City Manager Bill Burrough announced the finalists for Hot Springs police chief last week, narrowing a field of 30 applicants to three candidates.

Texarkana Arkansas Police Chief Robert Harrison was not among the remaining candidates.

Harrison said Tuesday that he believed the residency requirement, which he would have been unable to fulfill at the present time, removed him from the process.

“I appreciate the opportunity and consideration given. I will continue to proudly serve in what I believe is one of the best police agencies in the state of Arkansas.”

More than a dozen states were represented in the applicant pool, including seven in-state candidates. The list was narrowed down on Thursday.

Harrison and former Missouri Capitol Police Chief Mark Maples advanced to the short list of candidates, but neither was selected for an in-person interview.

Chris Chapmond, the department’s former assistant chief and the current chief of the Bluffton, S.C., Police Department, made the final three, joining Jeff Crow and Shannon Youngblood. Chapmond served 22 years on the Hot Springs Police Department before going to coastal South Carolina in July 2018.

Crow of Malvern is the director of safety and emergency management at Ouachita Baptist University. The former state trooper and administrator of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission lost a bid in March for the Republican nomination for the District 13 state Senate seat. He and Chapmond are both former Marines who served in the first Gulf War.

Youngblood, the chief of operations for the Montgomery, Ala., Police Department, was among more than 20 out-of-state candidates who applied for the job.

Burrough said he and the advisory panel he formed plan to interview the finalists in person next week. He said the candidates will tour the department and the city and meet with the Hot Springs Board of Directors.

The new chief will succeed Jason Stachey, who announced his retirement, effective May 29, last month. The city said none of the department’s current employees applied for the job.

(Texarkana Gazette reporters added information to this story.)