And then there were five.
The top applicants that the 21-person police chief search committee recommended as candidates for the permanent position were revealed Tuesday night during the Columbus City Council meeting.
The top five selections, in alphabetical order, are: Curtis Brame of North Chicago, Ill.; Nathaniel Clark of Albany, Ga.; Sam Lathrop of Beloit, Wis.; Selvain McQueen of Columbus; and Robert Spinks of Sequim, Wash.
Chief Operating Officer David Armstrong said the candidates were notified that they were recommended by the committee and are being strongly considered for the position.
There are two alternate applicants that the city will not release the names of because “they may not be considered,” Armstrong said.
The committee originally recommended five top candidates and three alternates out of the 25 resumes considered, but one of the top five selections withdrew from consideration and one of the alternates took that spot in the top-five group. The city will not release which of the applicants jumped into the top five group.
Committee comments
Birney Imes, Commercial Dispatch publisher and chair of the committee’s Oct. 12 meeting, presented the names to the council Tuesday and informed the council of other comments made during the meeting.
Imes said “a number of the members of the group felt (the city) should hire from within.
“They felt it would be good for morale,” Imes said, but noted that Tupelo Police Chief Tony Carleton, one of the 21 members, said it might not be the best idea because an in-house hire will already have friends and enemies within the department.
“Some people will like him; some people won’t. He said it’s not necessarily a good thing,” Imes said.
Vicksburg Police Chief Walter Armstrong said in the meeting that the chosen police chief should hire his own assistant police chief, Imes said.
“He said he felt like it was essential and very important that the chief hire his assistant,” Imes said.
“Both of the chiefs stressed the need for community involvement. Chief Armstrong of Vicksburg said they have had four shootings down there, and they have made four arrests because they had a lot of community involvement.”
Imes said one of the local pastors who was part of the committee said his church does a ministry at the (Lowndes County) Juvenile Detention Center, and the pastor received some insight from a juvenile about some of the crime in Columbus.
“(The pastor) said one of the kids felt like their crimes were gang-related,” Imes said.
Imes told the council that “a female” member of the committee made a “sobering comment” toward the end of the meeting.
“She said, ‘I don’t feel safe in Columbus,'” Imes said to the council. “She said, ‘I’ve had a burglar alarm and never had it hooked up.’ She said, ‘I’ve got it hooked up now.'”
The five candidates
McQueen, former head of the Columbus Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division, has held the role of interim police chief since the City Council fired Joseph St. John from the post in July. McQueen has more than 23 years of law enforcement experience, and he earned a degree in mass communications from Jackson State in 1983 and went though numerous law enforcement schools. He was Officer of the Year in 1997.
Clark was an applicant in 2007 and one of four finalists when the council voted to appoint Joseph St. John as police chief. Clark was since hired by the Albany Police Department in 2008 as the director of the Office of Professional Standards. Clark previously served as a criminal investigator with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office from 2003-2008 and as police chief in Pine Bluff, Ark. from 2000-2002. He worked in the Pine Bluff Police Department for a total of 20 years with positions ranging from shift commander to Internal Affairs Division commander. Clark earned a degree in criminal justice from the University of Pine Bluff in Arkansas.
Spinks has around 30 years of policing experience and 12 years of police chief experience. He worked as Sequim police chief from February 2005 to June 2010. He previously worked: as a trial court supervisor for the State of Oregon Judicial Department – 19th Judicial District from 2004-2005; as the director of public safety for Bellevue College in Washington from 2002-2003; as an undersheriff in Benton County in 2001; and as police chief in Milton-Freewater, Ore. from 1997-2001. Spinks earned a Master of Science degree for criminal justice in 2005 from the University of Cincinatti.
Brame is a current lieutenant for the North Chicago (Ill.) Police Department and has worked in the department since 1985. He worked as deputy chief of police of operations from 2001-2005 and works as commander of the Support Services Division. He has worked in a number of capacities within the department ranging from commander of the Patrol Division to master sergeant in investigations. He earned a degree in criminal justice administrations in 2007 from Columbia College of Missouri.
Lathrop retired as Beloit police chief in July 2009. He worked in the Beloit Police Department for 31 years, and he served as police chief in Beloit for more than six years. He currently works as a law enforcement professional in the U.S. Army 4/10 Mountain Division, 1-30th Infantry Battalion. He mentors and trains Afghan National Police in Afghanistan. Lathrop earned an Associate Arts Degree in criminal justice in 1977 from Chippewa Valley Tech College in Wisconsin.
Council forms police chief subcommittee
After one committee finished its work in the police chief search, the Columbus City Council voted to form another committee.
The council voted 5-1 to form a subcommittee to help the city do research on the five applicants recommended by the police chief search committee.
The only councilman to vote down the motion was Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem.
Birney Imes told the council that the 21-person police chief search committee that met Oct. 12 suggested the subcommittee idea.
Imes said the group “felt strongly” that the city could gain valuable information by calling former police chiefs, media personnel and mayors from former towns where the applicants worked or currently work.
“They felt like a lot could be done by calling the right people,” Imes said, noting online newspaper reports as another tool to research the candidates.
Ward 6 Councilman Bill Gavin agreed and said a subcommittee would be a “vital asset.”
“Newspaper articles will tell us a lot about these candidates,” he said.
Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens asked Imes for specifics of the subcommittee regarding how many members there would be and who the members would be.
“I suggest maybe a couple council members and maybe two or three members from the committee,” Imes said.
Mayor Robert Smith, who supported the idea of a subcommittee, suggested the group be no larger than five members and exclude the council members from the subcommittee.
City Attorney Jeff Turnage proposed considering a professional company to conduct the background checks and find court records and other information that may be difficult to find. He added it could be expensive, with prices ranging from $375 per applicant to $1750 per applicant.
“On the other hand, it would be expensive to hire the wrong chief,” Turnage said.
Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box, who served as one of the 21 committee members, said the idea of the subcommittee was not so much to do background checks but to “talk to folks in the community” where the applicant is from.
Karriem expressed concerns about a lack of focus for the subcommittee and said it seems “kind of convoluted” what the group will do.
Smith responded that the group would meet with Human Resources Director Pat Mitchell to see “what they can and can’t do.”
Mitchell added that “some guidelines will need to be established.”
“We don’t want to ask any questions that will violate a person’s rights,” she said, noting the committee cannot conduct the criminal background checks on applicants.
“We would have to outsource that.”
Karriem said he “appreciates the transparency that this council is trying to give” but could not approve forming a subcommittee without specific guidelines set for the group.
“Because, as you know Mr. Imes, you can’t always believe everything you read in the newspaper,” Karriem said, resulting in laughter from the council and audience. “But I just wish that we could have some type of direction.
Ward 1 Councilman Gene Taylor proposed having Mitchell on the committee to serve as a guide based on her experience in hiring processed.
Smith thanked Imes for serving as the chair of the committee and asked him to serve as chair of the subcommittee.
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