You knew for certain Kemberle Braden was the right choice to become the 25th chief of police for this city when two former chiefs arrived on Feb. 3 for Braden’s swearing-in at City Hall.
First came Tom Bergamine.
Then Harold Medlock, about 15 minutes later.
Their presence was the exclamation point that the Fayetteville Police Department will be in good hands under the watch of the 48-year-old law enforcement officer who took his oath before a capacity audience in the City Council chamber.
“I stand before you today very humbled about the opportunity that has been given to me,” Braden said after being sworn in by Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons. “Twenty-seven years is a long time. It’s a long commitment. And today, I reaffirm my oath, the same oath I took 27 years ago. As I look around the room, I see many of the chiefs that came before me, and I have to think back to 1996 under Ron Hansen, when he gave a 22-year-old kid an opportunity.”
From his beginnings in 1996 patrolling Murchison Road, Braden has made the most of his career opportunities by rising through the ranks to an assistant chief under Gina Hawkins, who retired after 51/2 years at the end of January. He has worked with the Narcotics and Vice Suppression Unit and supervised the Gun and Gang Task Force. Braden was the 2002 Officer of the Year and is the recipient of the 2002 Police Purple Heart, after Braden took five bullets from an assailant while assisting in the execution of a search warrant for drugs in Bonnie Doone.
“To all the family and friends of Chief Kimberle Braden who are here with us today, I’d like to welcome you and say thank you for supporting him throughout his life and throughout his career so that I would have an opportunity to know him and work with him and appoint him today as our next chief of police,” City Manager Doug Hewett said. “As a city manager, few things give me greater pride than seeing our city leadership continue to grow and develop.
“And in 1996 a young officer graduated from the Police Academy to start his assignment with the Fayetteville Police Department. Twenty-seven years later, we are standing here with that young officer announcing him as the 25th Fayetteville police chief. His dedication to duty in our community and the love of serving the public are what brings professionals like Chief Braden to this point in their career.
“We would not be here today without his hard work and commitment to the profession,” Hewett said. “I look forward to continuing to work with you and to continue to ensure our residents have a safe and secure community each and every day.”
Braden will oversee a Police Department, Hewett said, for the sixth-largest city in the state.
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‘He’s a cop’s cop’
The city manager’s words were not lost on Tom Bergamine, who was police chief from 2007 to 2012.
“That man is self-driven,” said Bergamine, 68, now working part time as an instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia. “I saw it when he was coming up through the ranks. He is harder on himself than everybody else. He will be very successful. I was ecstatic when told he would be the police chief, and I called him and said, ‘I’m so proud of you.’ He’s going to do wonders.”
Medlock was police chief from 2013 to 2016.
“He’s going to do well,” said Medlock, 65, who resides in Charlotte and does consulting work with departments in Body Worn Cameras, Public Safety Partnership and Project Safe Neighborhoods through the Bureau of Justice Assistance. He also is a consultant with the Chicago Police Department on community policing, training and accountability.
“He has a good head for crime, but he has an awesome feel for people — is people and the community,” Medlock said of Braden.
“He’s a cop’s cop. He is a good listener,” Medlock said. “Kem challenged me several times and made me make better decisions.”
The former city manager’s words were not lost, either, on Mayor Mitch Colvin or Cindy McCormic, executive director for the Fayetteville Police Foundation.
“He’ll be great,” Colvin said. “He is familiar with the community. I look forward to working with him.”
McCormic said she and the foundation board have met with Braden.
“I look forward to working with him, especially on crime in our city,” McCormic said. “We want to make sure our employees are well taken care of, and I want our city to be one of the safest.”
‘He’s proud of me’
There was a renewal of enthusiasm and confidence on Feb. 3 as Beth Braden pinned the police chief’s shiny badge on her husband’s uniform. You could see that Kemberle Braden, in his mind’s eye, was giving thought to police chiefs and police officers who have been a part of his career, from Ron Hansen, the police chief from 1984 to 2000; Bob Weathers, the late FPD instructor; and Ronnie C. Braden, who was Braden’s late father and a former police chief in Providence, Kentucky.
A photograph of his father was placed beside Kemberle Braden’s seat prior to Friday’s ceremony.
“I think he would say he’s proud of me,” Kemberle Braden would say, taking his place in the City Council chamber.
He gave the photograph a quick glance before Ammons would administer Braden’s oath.
“It’s not the culmination of my career but the start of the next chapter,” Braden said after the oath-taking. “I look forward to working with everybody in this room. I see a lot of police officers that have come and supported me throughout this entire assessment and throughout my career. And I’ve I got to thank my wife, who over the past couple of months as I stayed up, studied and was out late at night going to community events and community meetings.
“I’ve been asked a lot of questions over the past several weeks and several days about what do I plan on doing. What changes am I going to make? And that’s all yet to be determined.
“I’m not trying to rush into anything too fast,” Braden said. “I truly want to take my time and figure out the things that need to happen so that we can be effective in moving forward as an agency and as a community.”
Epilogue
There have been just too many distractions on the second floor of the city Police Department beginning with the May 30, 2020, assault on the Market House by protesters, internal issues within the department, and not to discount 44 homicides in 2022 and 43 homicides in 2021.
City residents grew weary.
Now, the responsibility is on Kemberle Braden’s shoulders. Prospects for a safe city fall to Braden’s watch, and the presence on Feb. 3 of former Chiefs Harold Medlock and Tom Bergamine hopefully is a testament of assurance for the best of days and years to come.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
