Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Chief Dorman Announces Retirement
PRAIRIE GROVE — After 22 years with the Prairie Grove Police Department and more than 40 years in law enforcement, Chief Carl Dorman has announced he will retire from office March 31.
Dorman submitted his resignation in a March 5 letter addressed to Mayor Sonny Hudson.
“Since joining the department in 1992, I have found this to be an outstanding place to work,” Dorman said in the letter. “The time I have spent since August 2000, as the Prairie Grove Chief of Police has been the high point of my over forty years.”
Dorman, who graduated from Springdale High School and attended the University of Arkansas, started his law enforcement career as a police officer with the Dallas Police Department in Dallas, Texas, in 1973. He was promoted to sergeant in the Patrol Division in 1978 and retired from the Dallas department in 1992.
He and his family moved back to Northwest Arkansas and Dorman began working as a sergeant with the Prairie Grove Police Department under former Chief Robin Casey. Dorman retired from Prairie Grove in 2000 but returned the same year, after Casey resigned and then Mayor Andrew Bain asked him to come back and serve as chief. Dorman has been in the chief’s position 14 years.
In his letter to Hudson, Dorman recommends that the city promote Capt. Chris Workman to the chief’s position and promote Lt. Jeff O’Brien to captain.
“I hope you will allow Captain Workman and Lieutenant O’Brien to continue to provide Prairie Grove with the kind of police department I believe the citizens want and deserve. I believe they are up to the challenge,” Dorman stated.
Hudson said he has not made a decision yet on how he will fill the position. He said the city “will look at what we got and go from there.”
Hudson said Dorman has done an exceptional job as police chief and run a good department.
“He has some good people there now and you have to give him credit for his good people,” Hudson said.
O’Brien on Thursday said the officers hate to see Dorman retire.
“He was by far the hardest working person in the department,” O’Brien said. “He made sure we had the training we needed and that we were taken care of. He’s been really good to his officers.”
O’Brien said the officers knew they could turn to Dorman with questions and problems about law enforcement.
“It was nice to know he was always there,” O’Brien said.
Under Dorman’s leader- ship, the police department has grown from five officers to 10 full-time officers and one part-time employee and has taken over the full-time operation of the city’s animal control responsibilities. The department recently moved from its quarters on Buchanan to a new police department and district court complex at 955 E. Douglas Street.
In a statement sent by email, Dorman said one of his goals has been to improve the police department’s pay and professionalism and that he considers it an honor to have served the citizens of Prairie Grove.