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Gaither named interim chief |
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Thursday, 03 April 2008 |
 Capt. Roger Gaither is now interim chief of the Benton Police Department. Gaither will serve until a permanent chief is named to replace Gary Sipes, who officially resigned Wednesday. (Courier photo by Lynda Hollenbeck)
Courier StaffCapt. Roger Gaither said his job as interim Benton police chief will be to “keep things on an even keel.”
Gaither was appointed interim chief on Wednesay by Mayor Rick Holland.
Gaither will serve in the absence of Chief Gary Sipes, who is leaving to become chief of the Jacksonville Police Department. The Jacksonville force is larger, the job pays more and Sipes’ children and grandchildren reside there, Sipes said when announcing his resignation Wednesday.
“The department is doing well now,” said Gaither, who will turn 51 this month. “The chief is a fair man and did well here. We’ve come a long way under his tutelage.”
Gaither said he isn’t certain whether he will apply for the chief’s job. “I’m keeping my options open,” he said.
He said he considers Sipes’ departure “a loss to the city of Benton.”
“The chief came here at a difficult time, but led the department well,” he said.
By “difficult time,” Gaither was referring to layoffs in the department and funding cuts that occurred about the time Sipes began his tenure as chief a little more than four years ago.
“We had lost sales tax revenue that previously had been allocated to this department, and he had a rough way to go,” Gaither said.
Also, manpower was lost to military deployments about that time, Gaither noted, saying Sipes rose above those circumstances.
Sipes was director of code enforcement for the North Little Rock Police Department and brought that expertise to Benton, Gaither said.
“The code enforcement is now in this department, and we have two school resources officers that we didn’t have before,” Gaither said. “That’s been a good thing for Benton.”
He reiterated that Sipes was “a good chief.” While he expressed personal regret at Sipes’ departure, he said he subscribes to the thought that “you can’t fault a man for doing better for himself and his family, and that’s what he’s doing.”
Gaither has been with the Benton department for 25 years and served as acting chief when Sipes attended the FBI Academy.
“My job now is to maintain what we have,” Gaither said. “I won’t be making any changes.
“I’ve served under seven chiefs, and I’ve learned from all of them,” he said. “I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work under all of them.
“If I ever become apply for chief and should become chief of a department, I would use points I learned from each on what to do and what not to do,” he said.
For now, though, it’s status quo, he said. “These are going well here, and that’s the way we want to keep it,” he said.
Gaither is a lifetime Benton resident and a 1975 graduate of Benton High School. He and his wife, Linda, have a daughter, Lindsey, 22, who recently moved to Chicago.
He is the son of the late Judy and R.L. Gaither, who was an employee of the city’s electric department. |
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