Little Rock Police chief Keith Humphrey says he should announce--either later this week or early next week--whether there will be any punishment for Officer Charles Starks.
The investigation into the shooting death of Bradley Blackshire is one of the many things he has had to deal with in his first couple weeks on the job, and about which he spoke during a wide-ranging interview with THV11.
Humphrey said he had known for a long time that Little Rock police chief was the job he wanted. “The fact that there’s so much potential here,” he explained. “I’m familiar with the city. I was familiar with some of the officers, I was familiar with some of the citizens here. It’s always been a city that I’ve always been intrigued with. And I said that if I was ever able to put in for the job as the chief of police, I was definitely going to do it.”
He said he has no plans to leave Little Rock for another job. Though he was a finalist for the same positions in St. Louis and Kansas City, he said Little Rock is the biggest city he and his family want to be in.
“I made a commitment to the mayor,” he added. “I’ve publicly made a commitment to the citizens, I made a public commitment to the officers that this is where I want to be.”
Humphrey said he has not identified immediate priorities for the start of his tenure. “We’re still gathering information,” he mentioned. “I mean, there’s a couple of things that I believe that we can do here in the very near future, some updates and things like that regarding procedure. But, really and truly, the policies are pretty good, they’re pretty tight.”
He said he is trying to learn as much as he can about the department and the city and believes first-hand experience is the best way to do both.
“Being out in the community, you learn a lot of stuff that you normally wouldn’t learn sitting behind your desk,” Humphrey said. “And that’s what we try to tell our officers. You know, there’s things that you can learn more if you get out of the car and walk around.”
Humphrey has 31 years in law enforcement. He spent eight years as the chief of the Norman, Oklahoma Police Department, and was the police chief in Lancaster, Texas before that.
“I have some dedicated officers here,” he said Wednesday. “I think that there are some in the community that really don’t believe—or they don’t know—the officers, what their passion is. And their passion is keeping the city safe. I wish you could just see some of the things that I’ve seen, as far as what they put into, the officers put into, taking pride or having pride in their job and being here, part of Little Rock.
“There are more officers, I believe, that are from this community than some people think. But, just the fact of this department is a good department. This department’s not broken. It’s like any organization: there’s some things that we could probably improve on, but as far as broken, there’s not anything broken.”
Humphrey said he opposed a residency requirement for police officers. The issue has come before the Little Rock Board of Directors multiple times in recent years. “I don’t think you can do that,” he said. “I think you don’t want, you want officers with various, from diverse backgrounds, being from different areas. But you do want, you would like the majority of your department to be from the community. Unfortunately, that’s just not going to happen.”
Humphrey said he feels a high level of engagement from the Little Rock community and believes people here are more involved than in other similarly-sized cities. He found the same environment in Norman and believes it is a good thing.
“Because it’s been the similar concerns,” he said, “the involvement of the police department and the relationship between the community and the police department.”
The relationship between city and department has frayed in the two months since Starks shot and killed Bradley Blackshire. Friends and family have protested outside the State Capitol and City Hall. Their protest outside City Hall blocked roads, and prompted Humphrey to meet with the group in the middle of Markham Street.
Humphrey is also overseeing investigations of two other officers who shot and killed Michael St. Clair two weeks ago.
Humphrey said he is used to presiding over internal affairs investigations, doing so in Norman, as well. He believes it is the proper way to determine whether an officer broke the department’s policies.
“Sometimes, the problems with bringing in external partners in to do that: they don’t understand your policies. They don’t understand your, the guidelines and things like that, your use of force policy. So, things like that. Will officers be more open with that outside investigator than he is the internal investigator?
“What I want the citizens of Little Rock to know: I have no problem bringing in outside sources if I feel that our officers are not capable of performing a fair and impartial investigation. However, I’ve not seen anything that would indicate that our officers are not. I believe our officers are the best trained in the state.”
Humphrey said Wednesday he is working with Mayor Frank Scott, Jr. to purchase a body-worn camera system. Scott has indicated that body-cameras are a priority, because they would improve accountability and transparency for both police officers and citizens. Scott also announced in April that the city faces a $9M budget shortfall, but Humphrey did not believe that would prevent the Little Rock Police Department from buying a body-cam system.
“I do think that there is federal money out there,” Humphrey stated. “I think there is other methods of financing or purchasing body cameras. So, I think that we will. I truly believe here, in the next, in the future, that we’ll have the resources that I believe we need as far as technology.”
Scott also announced a plan to hire 100 more police officers over a four-year period. Humphrey said Wednesday that he and the mayor are not as bound to that idea, whether it be a longer hiring period or fewer officers.
“That’s why it’s important for me to do an audit of the organization,” he added, “to see, do we have enough officers here? Do we have too many officers here? And then I can come back to the mayor and say, you know, this is what I actually need. And so, he’s been very open-minded to that.”