Sep. 1--The Fort Smith interim police chief on Saturday responded to accusations against himself and a former Fort Smith police dispatcher about the drowning death of Debra Stevens and her 911 call with the dispatcher before that.
Interim Police Chief Danny Baker in a Facebook post on Saturday morning explained why he did not publicly denounce former dispatcher Donna Reneau during a Thursday news conference about Reneau's Aug. 24 911 call with Stevens in her final moments, saying she "knew she messed up" in what police called a "callous and uncaring"-sounding call before Stevens drowned inside her vehicle.
While Baker in his post was frustrated with Reneau's choice of words and remorseful over Stevens' death, he described Reneau as a "good, decent human being who has saved countless lives in the last five years" and said "it is so unfortunate that her entire career will be defined by this single incident."
Stevens, 47, drowned inside her vehicle around 5 a.m. Aug. 24 after flash floods swept her away while she was delivering newspapers in the 5800 block of Kinkead Avenue. Reneau during the phone call told Stevens to "shut up" about five minutes before the floodwaters submerged her inside her vehicle and told her the incident would teach her "to not drive in the water."
Baker at a Thursday news conference speculated that Reneau may have underestimated the importance of Stevens' call and not urged officers who were busy at other calls to respond to her as much as she should have. He also said he would not have released the audio without a media request and that Reneau's actions did not rise to the level of criminal charges or even termination.
The press conference has prompted upset reactions online -- comments on a Times Record live stream of the Thursday news conference include those hoping Reneau "leaves the town in shame" and that Baker "needs to be fired."
Several reviews left on the Police Department Facebook page since the incident state it is "disgusting" how they handled the incident.
Police spokesperson Aric Mitchell on Saturday said the Police Department has received death threats since Thursday afternoon. Baker's post was in response to a separate post from community leader Sam Price, who has vocally supported Baker since he became interim police chief in April following former police chief Nathaniel Clark's resignation.
Price in his post said he still supports Baker, who is one of three candidates to become police chief in the city, since the news conference. He described Baker as a "loving, caring, honest, hard-working, God-fearing man," citing his leadership through the 500-year Arkansas River flood.
"I will not defend any statement that he made because you did not agree with it," Price said. "To defend him would mean that I think he has done something wrong, and I do not believe he has."
Baker in his post said blaming Reneau for the entire incident "would have been easy" and would have been "the best thing" for him to do politically. "But I'm not a politician. I am just a simple man who, through circumstances I believe are God-made, find myself in a position of leadership that I question daily whether I am fully equipped for," Baker said, adding that everyone at the Police Department knew the gravity of the situation. "There was a collective 'Oh my God' from the department. I knew someone was going to have to advocate for them. I knew it wasn't going to be easy. The easy thing to do would be for me to cast stones at the dispatcher as well," he continued. "From what I can tell, that has been my 'sin' in this: that I didn't publicly denounce the dispatcher as an evil person deserving of death."
Baker closed by saying he will remove himself from important decisions and that "serving God and his people" will always be his motive.
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