The Fort Smith Police Department faces a number of administrative problems and morale issues and continues to operate with a shortage of officers and personnel due to retirements, resignations and employees leaving the department for other positions.
Over a little less than a two year span, at least 77 officers, dispatchers, IT technicians and supervisory personnel ranging from sergeants to majors have separated from the department and many of those positions have gone unfilled in the past twenty-four months.
The shortage of officers puts a strain on the remaining members of the force when it comes to workload, and can also be a factor in the quality of public safety provided to the community. Internal strife caused by recent efforts to handcuff the civil service commission and allow Chief Nathaniel Clark to go outside the department to hire supervisory personnel has been damaging to morale in the department, according to sources.
The sliver lining in the shortage of personnel is that the unused budget for salaries for 2017 is expected to be transferred to the operational budget this week after a study session by the Board of Directors has apparently cleared the way for those monies to be used for much-need vehicle, equipment and training upgrades as requested by Clark.
A total of $744,000 in line item purchases will be considered at the regular BOD meeting at 6 p.m Tuesday. Sources say that Clark, who is reportedly going to withdraw his proposal this week to bypass the CSC in hiring matters, has been promising first line officers the upgrades and improvements for several weeks in what many feel are an effort to offset the controversy, criticism and disgruntled status among the rank and file.
And the transfer of funds from personnel budget to th operational column has rarely, if ever, been utilized to pay for training and equipment upgrades.
Inside Fort Smith filled a Freedom of Information request with the city of Fort Smith last week concerning personnel issues within the police department. The request was in two parts, one covering the 12 month period prior to Clark taking over as Police Chef in the fall of 2016 (October 1, 2015 through October 9 2016) and the second covering the same information since Clark’s hiring to present.
In the twelve months prior to Clark becoming the chief the city reports twenty-eight total separations, Twenty-seven of the twenty-eight were voluntary through retirement, resignation with no reason given or resignation to accept another position. There was also one non-voluntary as a female probationary patrol officer was let go prior to completing her probationary period.
In all, 25 of the 28 individuals who left the department were sworn officers.
Among the 27 voluntary separations, nine were the result of retirements. Included in that group were two captains, two sergeants and five corporals representing 187 years and four months of service to the community.
Nine other department personnel are listed as “Resigned-no reason given” including police chief Kevin Lindsey who resigned after just a little more than nine years on the job amid allegations of using a racial epithet in a conversation with an employee. That category also covered two patrol officers, three corporals. One sergeant, a telecommunicator and a customer service assistant, representing a total of 75 years and seven months of experience.
In the “resigned to accept another position” category there were nine total separations including one dispatcher, one animal control officer and and seven patrol officers, representing approximately 52 years of service and experience.
Excluding the one probationary police officer that was let go, Fort Smith lost three hundred and fifteen years experience during the one year period.
Clark took over the police chief job on October 10, 2016. In response to the FOIA request from Inside Fort Smith, figures were provided from that date through August 30, 2017 (a period of just less than ten months) since the separations in September had not been added to the master list.
In that time frame, Fort Smith experienced forty-two total separations including patrol offices, corporals, sergeants, captains, one major, a customer service assistant, ten telecommunicators and two senior clerks.
Of the 42 total, 28 were sworn personnel (officer) while 14 were non-sworn employees.
Retirement was responsible for seventeen of those separations, which removed three hundred and forty years and seven months of tenure from the department. All seventeen of those retirements came in just over a little more than eight months after Clark took over the top spot and sixteen of those occurred Between April 21 and June 30 of this year.
Those retirements included one major, two captains and several sergeants and corporals.
Twelve listed “no reason given” for the resignation while nine accepted positions with other departments. In total, 27 years and four months of experience was lost to the department .
Two other separations,one for long term disability and one for personal reasons, accounted for experience on the job losses of seventeen years year and six months. The two senior clerks that resigned had been employed for ten years and three month.
During Clark’s tenure, the 42 separations have cost the city of Fort Smith 397 years and eight months of on the job experience.
A source tells inside Fort Smith that even other separations have occurred since September 1 of this year, including four dispatchers, two patrol officer and an IT technician. The same source says there will be at least ten more separations in October-November meaning 57 employees will have left the department within the past year representing a turnover rate of more than 29% of the department in the thirteen month period. (Based on 196 authorized employees)
The turnover rate for the previous year and the same number of authorized employees was just under 15% for the one year period prior to Clark’s hiring.
The average turnover rate in the department wa jut over 9.5 percent from 2008 through 2016.
