Fort Smith police chief resigns and apologizes for racial comment, interim chief named

Fort Smith Police Chief Kevin Lindsey resigned Monday (March 14) following a short statement from the Bartlett Community Room of the Fort Smith Police Department. Soon after the statement Major Dean Pitts was named interim police chief.

“This won’t take too much of your time, and I will not be taking any questions after the press conference,” Lindsey said to begin.

Following is a transcript of Lindsey’s short statement: “Most of you know me. I’m Kevin Lindsey. For the past nine years, I have been the Police Chief for the city of Fort Smith. I want to thank all of the citizens, all of my co-workers, for giving me the privilege of serving in that role.

“Over the last several months, I have been under great personal stress, and that stress came out in an unprofessional and inappropriate comment a few days ago. I made apologies to the parties involved. I extend those apologies to each of you, the citizens of Fort Smith, and my co-workers. I’m profoundly sorry for what happened, what was said, and that’s all I can say at this point in time.

“I have been blessed over the years to be associated with a lot of good people here in Fort Smith as well as those in my department. I feel that the department can move on. I hope it can as will I. I want to thank everybody for being here today.

‘I believe it’s in my best interests and the best interests of this department and the city to depart, so at the end of this press conference, I am going to be tendering my resignation effective today, and as I stated earlier, I will be spending more time with my family. Thank you all for coming.”

With that, Lindsey was done, but a packed and divided Community Room was not.

The incident Lindsey referred to in his farewell was reported by Talk Business & Politics on March 12. According to various sources close to the situation, Lindsey said the only way more minorities would be part of the police force would be for white officers “to wear black face.” A city employee with the IT office overheard the comment and asked IT department head Russell Gibson to file a complaint. Gibson sent that complaint to Dingman on March 3.

Dingman on Saturday responded to a question about if the decision to resign sooner was Lindsey’s (it was), but he did not respond when asked why he did not inform Board members, the media or the public about the March 3 complaint when on March 10 Lindsey announced his resignation.

Following Lindsey’s presser, Dingman spoke to TBP at length, commenting again that the decision to resign was “strictly his (Lindsey’s) move.”

“Regarding the particular incident that he’s referring to, I hadn’t completed my own investigation – fact-finding, whatever you want to call it – to make any sort of determination although I had had discussion with Kevin,” Dingman explained. “This was his election to do this before it came to any sort of decision by me.”

‘MUCH TO DO OVER NOTHING’
Prior to the start of the press conference, Bill Vines spoke up in defense of Lindsey, who thanked the former Mayor of Fort Smith for his words.

“To me, from what I know of this, Chief, and you haven’t told me much, and I haven’t heard maybe the whole story, but to me, this is much to do over nothing,” Vines said. “The deal is, we all say things when we’re stressed, when we’re pushed, when we’re angry about something. We say things we don’t mean to say to our spouses, we say it to our children, we say it to our boss, to our customers, to our friends, whatever. Then we’re sorry about it, and we apologize, and we move on. You’ve apologized, and we need to let it move on.”

Vines remarked that there was “no reason” for Lindsey to leave the department. He continued: “It’s an overreaction to a relatively small deal. It really is. You’re a good Chief. You worked hard for this city. We have a good department. The guys like you. They’ve worked with you. The city likes you. The people’ve worked with you. You don’t need to leave. You just don’t need to leave.”

Vines’ comments were met with applause, but they were also derided by some in attendance from the city’s African-American community. Citizen Blanche Smith specifically took issue with the remarks and was also met with applause.

“My Bible says, ‘What you got inside of you, will come out,’” Smith said. “And you had that already inside of you. You know, he (Vines) said, ‘It’s not a big deal,’ but you know, God is our Judge. And what you put down in your heart, it will come out.”

Part of the stress to which Lindsey referred came from Little Rock attorney Matt Campbell who has represented several clients in suits against the FSPD. One action was a whistleblower lawsuit by plaintiffs Don Paul Bales, Rick Entmeier and Wendall Sampson. The three police officers have maintained they were fired or disciplined as a result of trying to point out illegal behavior within the FSPD. An August 2014 hearing in that case has resulted in a perjury allegation against FSPD Police Captain Jarrard Copeland. The Sebastian County Sheriff’s Department recently concluded an investigation of those charges turned over the file to Sebastian County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Shue.

A discrimination/retaliation lawsuit filed Nov. 30, 2015 against the FSPD notes that the department has not promoted a black officer since 1988 and has not hired a black officer since 1995. The lawsuit was filed by Campbell on behalf of his client, Wendall Sampson Jr., in the U.S. District Court of Western Arkansas. Sampson is African American, and the lawsuit alleges discrimination in employment and promotion. For his client, Campbell “seeks full back pay as the result of the discriminatory failure to promote Plaintiff and his subsequent demotion/transfer, …”

Campbell said Lindsey’s actions say more than his words.

“Chief Lindsey’s comments would have been inappropriate regardless, but the fact that the made those comments while looking into the very hiring practices that we have complained about in Cpl. Sampson’s lawsuit is extra troubling. After all, he is the person who said, unequivocally, that there was no racism or animus toward minorities at the FSPD. His own comments now call that assertion into serious doubt,” Campbell noted in a statement to Talk Business & Politics.

REPAIRABLE?
After Monday’s press conference, TBP asked Dingman to weigh in on Vines’ and Smith’s comments, particularly whether Lindsey’s comments were repairable and whether the resignation was necessary.

“It’s hard to say,” Dingman answered. “We’re obviously in a sensitive time with the department. At a different time and in a different context, maybe it’s repairable, but at this particular time with this department and the interest and attention, probably not. Probably not. And I think that he (Lindsey) recognized that, and I think he recognized that doing anything other than what he’s done would subject the department to further scrutiny and the city in general. I think he did it as much for the city and department as anything.”

Dingman said he did not know where Lindsey goes from here or what his prospects are.

Lindsey’s resignation marks the sixth top person in city management to retire since July. Dingman is confident the city will be able to fill the position soon, but noted it was a discussion he would have to have with Carl Geffken, the newly hired City Administrator, regarding the next steps. Geffken will likely take over for Dingman sometime in April, while Dingman moves back to the deputy city administrator position.

“There are folks that are qualified and interested within the department, but there will definitely be a nationwide kind of recruitment, so that will happen,” Dingman said.

A Monday press release from the FSPD named Major Dean Pitts, Division Commander of the Administrative Support Services Division, as interim Chief of Police. Pitts was part of the meeting during which Lindsey made the “black face” comment.

With the “interest and attention” Dingman was referring to, it is too early to tell if the permanent Chief of Police position will be filled by someone within. The police department has been criticized for having too few minorities.

‘BAD PRACTICES WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT’
Before departing Monday’s presser, TBP also had the chance to speak with Ward 2 City Director Andre Good, Fort Smith’s lone African-American representative on the Board of Directors. Good said Lindsey “made the right call for himself personally.”

“His resignation was not based on this one incident,” Good explained. “He stated, and it’s obvious, that he and his department have been going through it the past few years — investigations, lawsuits, that’s got to be stressful on a chief.”

Good said he had spoken to Lindsey “on a couple of occasions just to let him know that I have been supportive of him and that I have not said anything derogatory about him, but there are some bad practices within the department, some of which he directly oversees and some that he doesn’t. But ultimately, he is the Chief, so he has the power to make change.”

Good also seemed annoyed when asked whether he felt there had been any internal pressure on Lindsey to step down, stating, “That, we wouldn’t know. As far as the directors go, I can tell you that at least not by email – we didn’t know the action taken until it actually happened as far as his resigning. We didn’t know of any investigation.”

He continued: “I called Dingman and asked him personally, ‘What’s going on? Is there a problem? Is there any kind of investigation we need to know about?’ And Jeff said no. So, as far as Dingman pressuring him, I don’t think so, and I say that because Jeff, like any other team, has an inner circle, just like with the hiring of the HR director and what-not. I believe Chief Lindsey was one of the people on his team, you know, as well as others, so I think Dingman has a lot of faith in Chief Lindsey, so I don’t think that he would have forced him to leave. I don’t think he would have pressured him.”

Good was one of five directors, who opted to hire Geffken instead of Dingman for the City Administrator position. He admitted on Monday that he hadn’t spoken to Geffken since the night of Geffken’s interview, but said the Administrator-elect “is well aware.”

“He (Geffken) did his homework on the city of Fort Smith,” Good explained. “This particular incident hadn’t happened yet, but he’s very aware of some of the issues that we have going on within the police department, the water department and so-forth.”

Going back to the lack of diversity and minority representation in the Fort Smith Police Department, Good said that he didn’t think it would be necessary to hire an African-American police chief — at least not simply for the sake of it.

“I don’t think that’s necessary at all. I’ve been asked that question several times. I don’t think it’s necessary. Would it be a good thing? Sure. There absolutely are qualified African-American officers that would probably do well in this position, but do I think it’s necessary? I don’t think it’s necessary. Again, I think part of our problem is, you know, is dealing from within, and if a strong leadership, if a strong Captain, can change the inside of his department and reflect that change outwardly, I think that would be the man or woman for the job, regardless if they were African-American, Asian, Hispanic, or what-have-you.”