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New police chief is prepared for all crises
- even UFOs
By Bill Whitaker
Would it sound too arrogant to say the town of Ranger has placed
much of its hope for the future in a one-time Reporter-News hack?
Maybe so, but it's still the truth.
In an unusual step a couple of weeks ago, the Ranger City Commission
voted to make Police Chief Claud Arnold the town's city manager
as well. What makes this even more unique is Chief Arnold hasn't
even been in Ranger six months yet.
The chief, who was making $31,500 as the town's head lawman,
will make an additional $6,000 for running the city government.
Obviously, city commissioners have developed great faith in
this strapping, 49-year-old fellow, and in relatively short time
- not bad, considering he was barely on the job as the town's
head lawman when he smashed up a patrol car.
Certainly Ranger needs some attention, especially in the wake
of several years of community in-fighting and political squabbling
that even saw city leaders come to physical blows.
Folks in Ranger vow that's a thing of the past - and that Claud
Arnold is part of the change.
CHIEF INFLUENCE
When I saw the new chief at the community Christmas feed mounted
at the Ranger Fire Department a week ago, I asked if his wife
minded the fact he was adding to duties that already consumed
most of his time.
"I've worked two or three jobs ever since she's known
me," the chief said, "so she's used to me working 18
to 20 hours a day."
Of course, considering the long hours and low pay involved
in working for the <I>Reporter-News<I> in the late
1960s, his current work arrangement probably doesn't look half-bad.
Already, he says, the police force has grown from three to five
men and the $103,000 in outstanding warrants and uncollected fines
has been boiled down to about $80,000. Plus he talks excitedly
about work on a new sewer system and long-range water distribution
goals.
When I asked Chief Arnold who influenced him during his days
as a young reporter in Abilene, I naturally expected him to mention
one of our own newsroom legends of the period.
Instead he cited Warren Dodson, Abilene's late police chief,
credited by many with lending our men in blue their sturdy professionalism.
While Chief Dodson insisted his department be aboveboard and open
with the news media at all times, he was not normally cozy with
the press.
But in Claud Arnold he apparently developed a lasting rapport.
"He (Dodson) was a graduate of the FBI Academy and even
arranged for me to be interviewed by the FBI for a job with them,"
Chief Arnold recalled. "He and J. Gordon Shanklin, director
of the Dallas office of the FBI, both did. But J. Gordon finally
talked me out of it.
"He said I'd probably be sent to Washington to work in
the records bureau initially, and that I'd likely never get sent
back to Texas."
Although Claud Arnold left Abilene before the 1960s came to
a close, he continued to work in the newspaper trade, venturing
into the draining business of running a weekly. However, his interest
in law enforcement also grew, to the point he finally decided
to become a bona fide policeman in 1977.
FOLLOW THAT SAUCER
Working as a small-town lawman has had its strange moments.
For instance, he remembers the time during his days as a cop in
Saginaw when he stopped a motorist for speeding - only for the
driver to explain he was "chasing a flying saucer down Saginaw
Boulevard.
"I turned him loose," the chief said, "and 30
or 40 minutes later a piece of space debris really did fall out
of the sky. I mean, obviously, he couldn't have seen it, but it
made the situation all the more fantastic."
But the deep-voiced chief also says he's had more profound
lessons served up during his years as a lawman. At one point,
he said, he pulled over "a man with a homemade license plate
on an old junker, and I made some kind of rude remark about driving
this piece of junk on <I>my<I> road."
The motorist's response made the lawman regret his comment.
"Mister, this may be a piece of junk to you," the
driver said, "but it's all I got to get to work in so I can
support my family."
Claud Arnold's reaction: "That cut me to the quick."
The chief said it made him realize there are certain ways to
treat people, even when they're doing something you see is wrong,
"that you need to treat all people fairly and honestly and
politely, and you'll usually get a good response."
It's a lesson Claud Arnold says he's never forgotten - and,
all things considered, it's a lesson other folks in this colorful
town of 2,800 might also agree is well worth embracing.
Going out of town? Keep up with Bill Whitaker's adventures
on-line by punching in www.texnews.com, then looking for "Brazos
Bill."
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1997, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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