You cannot deny the long years of crime-fighting on his face as Kemberle Braden reflects on this rainy day from his second-floor office of the Fayetteville Police Department overlooking Hay Street.
His detectives are out wrapping up the June homicide investigation of a 7-year-old killed in a drive-by shooting in west Fayetteville.
Braden, 50, has seen his share of murders in his 29 years as a police officer in this city – from the death of Fort Liberty soldier Kelly Bordeaux on April 14, 2012, the abduction, sexual assault and murder of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis in November of 2009, and the shooting death of fellow officer Roy Turner Jr. along nearby Hillsboro Street on Nov. 30, 2001.
“For 29 years, I have stood on that thin blue line in the face of danger with my brothers and sisters in blue,” Braden was saying Tuesday in announcing that he will retire as police chief on March 31, 2025. “I have served with some of the most professional individuals to have worked in the law enforcement profession. I have shed blood, sweat and tears on the streets of Fayetteville, and I don’t regret a single moment of my service.”
Just four months before the homicide of Turner, who was 32, Braden also suffered an attempt on his life while assisting other officers in executing a search warrant for illegal narcotics at a Bonnie Doone home. According to Braden, a young teenager sent a salvo of bullets through sheetrock from an adjacent room, and Braden would take them all – a bullet to his arm, another to his hip and three more to his chest.
Braden has said a bulletproof Kevlar likely saved his life. He was honored as the 2002 Officer of the Year and is the recipient of the 2002 Police Purple Heart.
He would return to police work in 2002 and rise through the ranks as supervisor of the Gun and Gang Task Force, assistant chief and taking over as chief on Feb. 3, 2023, succeeding Gina Hawkins. She is the former chief who drew community criticism for her decision to hold back her officers on May 30, 2020, when some protesters demonstrating against the murder of George Floyd became violent and damaged the historic Market House.
It was a polarizing time for the city, and cities and police departments across the country.
“Crime in our city is our No. 1 issue,” Michael Pinkston, a downtown businessman and city council candidate previously said of Hawkins. “I am sorry to say this, but our city chief of police has to go. Not only has she failed the city, she has single-handedly destroyed a once-fine police department. We will never get a handle on crime until we get rid of Gina Hawkins.”
Hawkins eventually resigned, but she did not go quietly into that good night.
A lawyer for Hawkins later threatened legal action against the city on behalf of Hawkins, who claimed a hostile working environment, including what was described in the lawsuit as racist and sexist treatment during her five-and-a-half years as chief. The city, in an 8-2 vote of the city council, settled with Hawkins for $200,000.
Braden promised to be a more transparent chief with the community.
“My job was to turn the ship around, and now it will be someone else’s job to take it from here,” Braden told CityView in a one-on-one interview Tuesday. “My job was to turn the ship around and do the police work, and I think that is evident in crime” statistics.
Braden’s pending retirement comes just two weeks after the chief told the Fayetteville City Council that city crime rates have declined by 8% this year and violent crime is expected to reach its lowest point in a decade.
Braden said he informed his FPD command staff at 5 p.m. Monday, the Fayetteville City Council before Monday’s regularly scheduled council meeting, and his officers around 10 a.m. Tuesday. The chief said he informed City Manager Doug Hewett last week.
‘Advocate for public safety’
Hewett said the city will work with an external partner to assist in the search to identify and screen candidates to succeed Braden.
“Chief Braden has been a remarkable leader and dedicated Fayetteville public safety professional with nearly 30 years of exemplary service to the Fayetteville community,” Hewett told CityView on Tuesday. “Chief Braden has been an unwavering advocate for public safety, an innovator in policing strategies and a champion for building trust between our officers and the community they serve.
“On behalf of the City of Fayetteville, I thank Chief Braden for his three decades of service, his tireless efforts to protect and uplift our community and his unwavering commitment to excellence.
“While we will miss his steady hand and leadership,” Hewett said, “we celebrate his legacy and wish him all the best in this next chapter of life.”
Braden’s decision comes with the FPD down 126 sworn police officers, the chief acknowledged, He says the city is budgeted for 471 sworn officers.
“I have 345 out there,” Braden said.
And it comes as the FPD has only one assistant chief, Todd Joyce. Assistant chiefs Robert Ramirez and Kelly Berg retired in September. Braden said recruiting police officers has been a struggle for police departments nationwide since the murder of George Floyd.
“It was traumatic for the profession as a whole,” he said. “We had cops who decided it wasn’t worth it.”
Eyes of community activists
Braden, like Hawkins and former chief Tom Bergamine, has drawn his share of criticism from community activists as well as City Council Member Mario Benavente with regard to the homicides investigated by city police, including the death of Lawrence Artis on Oct. 2, 2023.
Artis, according to the chief, was detained in a west Fayetteville parking lot after investigating officers discovered a gun in his possession. He was handcuffed and in custody of three police officers, when police say he reached into his back pocket for a second weapon and shot himself. Officers, according to the FPD, immediately administered first aid. Artis died four days later at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill.
Local activists questioned the FPD account of the shooting. How could a man in handcuffs behind his back take his own life?
Artis died by suicide, the state Medical Examiners Officer said, in November.
‘It takes a toll on you’
Kemberle Braden has seen crime up close and personal. In his 29 years, he’ll tell you he has seen children abused, domestic violence, gang violence, those who have died by self-inflicted use of opioids, and the perils of the homeless.
“This job is not a Monday through Friday 8 to 5 job,” Braden said. “This job takes its toll on you emotionally, physically and mentally. Realistically, for leaders – if it’s done right – it takes a toll on you.”
Crime never sleeps.
Any lawman will tell you so.
When there is a crime in this city, Braden will tell you he is there to assist his officers however a police chief can.
“As a police chief, you are involved in every crime,” said Braden, whose late father was a police chief in Providence, Kentucky. “The night before Thanksgiving, I didn’t get home until 4 a.m. I was dealing with a hostage situation. We eventually talked him out after eight hours.”
Along a policeman’s way
The police chief is pensive on this Tuesday as the rain falls on a city that Kemberle Braden has sworn to protect and to serve, so help him God.
His eyes, it’s clear, are tired.
He’s reflective about where the life of a policeman has taken him, and where it may lead.
“I started at age 22,” Braden said. “I look back on Shaniya Davis and Roy Turner’s death.”
He reflects on his department unraveling the deaths of a brother and sister, Blake and London Deven, who had been missing for years until June when their foster mother was arrested and charged with their deaths.
“The Deven case was significant,” Braden said. “I take pride that Sgt. Jeff Locklear and what his people did to solve that case.” Locklear is the FPD lead homicide detective.
Braden gives thought to the late Capt. Shawn Collins, a police officer for 27 years, who died suddenly at age 49 on Nov. 6, leaving a wife and four children behind.
‘Blood, sweat and tears’
“March 31 will be my last official day of duty,” Braden said. “I need to make sure my wife is taken care. I’m going to have some quality time with my wife, family and grandkids.”
Braden becomes the second major city police chief to retire. Estella Patterson announced her retirement on Dec. 5 after three years as chief of the Raleigh Police Department. Patterson says she will retire March 1.
“I’m exploring opportunities,” Braden said. “But don’t look for me to put in for Raleigh. I don’t want to be a police chief in a big city.”
Consulting or police training, he says, may be in his future. He’ll explore his options.
“I don’t have any disappointments per se,” Braden said. “Law enforcement is rapidly changing. I’ve got to be a part of some of the biggest breakthroughs in law enforcement. I’ve literally shed blood, sweat and tears, and I don’t regret being a police officer. Even being shot, it opened my eyes to the dangers, but it made me a better cop.”
Braden reflects on where this city has been with crime.
It’s not perfect, but …
“Homicides are cut in half from where we were last year,” he said. “Crime is at the lowest it has been in a decade, and 2024 will be better than 2023. Crime-wise, I’m confident we’re in a good place.”
Epilogue
It’s time, the chief says, for someone else to sit behind the desk on the second floor of the police department.
“I’ll miss the camaraderie of the profession,” Kemberle Braden said. “I’ll miss the excitement. I’ll miss fighting crime. First and foremost, I’m a cop. My rank is chief of police. But I’m a cop.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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