Assistant Police Chief stepping down

Langston taking job outside of law enforcement, will take on reserve role with WMPD

By JOHN RECH

news@theeveningtimes.com

West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon announced the retirement of Assistant Police Chief Robert Langston during the last regular meeting of city council during September. Langston said he would step away from his role at the police department to accept a private sector job. Langston planned to continue with the department as a reserve officer serving the city at special events.

“You’ll still see me around,” said Langston.

Langston thanked city and department leadership for the opportunity to serve the city for 25 years. Police Chief Eddie West promoted Langston to assistant chief in 2019.

“I want to thank Mayor Marco McClendon and Chief Eddie West for giving me this opportunity to serve as assistant chief,” said Langston. “I think what we’ve been able to do with the violent crime unit and building that up. I really have enjoyed being able to serve the citizens of West Memphis over the last 25 years. I love what I do. It’s Time to move in another direction.”

Langston was hired by FedEX Freight as a security specialist having responsibilities over 11 freight distribution centers covering an area from Birmingham to Meridian, Jackson Miss. and Tenn., Memphis and West Memphis.

Langston started as a city jailer in 1995. He moved to patrolman in spring of ’96 and earned a promotion to

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narcotics detective a year later. He took command of the city SWAT team in 2004. Christmas time of 2016 Langston earned the captain rank and worked a handful of roles. He continued leading SWAT, narcotics, training division, communications division, and evidence division for the city department. He commanded the FBI and DEA task forces.

Langston’s training and education developed while serving the city full time he earned a B.A. in Criminology from ASU in 2018. Langston earned certi_cation by the University of Virginia in criminal justice education, studied at the FBI National Academy, and attended the DEA national Drug Unit Commander Academy.

“The FBI was a real con_dence boost,” said Langston. “There were 250 people there from all over the world. I saw people from LAPD, NYPD, and then here we are in West Memphis with the same kind of crime on a smaller scale.”

Langston used his training network to visit police departments in Denver, Chicago and Austin, and gleaned from operations there to make improvements here, especially with the violent Crime Suppression Unit.

The DETER program was also hatched with Langston and now Retired Captain Joe Baker travel and observation. The crime analysis marked out a a high crime zone along the south Avalon corridor. The success of the saturation patrols that followed became a national case study in crime reduction.

Former West Memphis Police Chief Donald Oakes said the best word to describe Langston was reliable.

“Whatever you ask him to do, he will do and do it well,” said Oakes. “You could say Robert, get this done. He would get it done and it would be done correctly, 100 percent. I never needed to follow- up on him. His greatest asset is pure reliability. Whatever I needed, it was as simple as telling Robert and it got taken care of. I’m sure he was the same for Chief west because, Robert is just that guy.”

Langston worked on some short time lines to make deadlines. He ew home one day after training Jordan’s national police and coordinated Operation Money Don’t Sleep, a narcotics and violent crime sweep the set for the next day.

“The operation had been going for a year and a half, but came back and helped put together the raid plans and was in the press conference before I got any sleep,” said Langston.

Crittenden County Sheriff Mike Allen supervised Langston during his time with the department.

“He is a great strategic commander,” said Allen. “He keeps everybody in the loop. His recent work with the narcotics division and the DEA has been key. Being this close to Memphis, in order to work drugs coming into our area you have to work across state lines. He developed relationships with federal agencies to help all the law enforcement agencies around here do that. He has helped law enforcement a whole lot with drugs, gangs and guns. He is one guy when you say he will be missed – it’s the truth.”

Langston said he enjoyed education. He relished the opportunity to reestablish the West Memphis Basic Police Academy and the Citizens academy.

“The citizens academy start meant a lot for me because we actually got to show our citizens what police do,” said Langston. “ We recruited a reporter from the local paper because we wanted them involved but also recruited from the churches because they repre3sented the voice of the community. That was a big thing for me.

Chief Oakes allowed me to start the basic academy that had been shut down for 40 years,” said Langston. “We were on a time crunch we had six weeks to start that academy from scratch. We were able to put a team together and built a 15 week training academy in a month and a half. Those are two of my favorite things over the years that I can still see the fruits of today.”

His chief, Eddie West, bid farewell to his assistant.

“Langston was a good of_cer throughout his career,” said West. “He was a good assistant chief. We will miss him and wish him well.”