Following more than 20 years of service — including the last nine as Hopkinsville’s Police Chief — Clayton Sumner announced his retirement Tuesday afternoon, targeting August 1, 2023 as his exit date from local law enforcement.
The timing, he said, just fits.
The last nine years with the Hopkinsville Police Deparment, he said, have brought some highs and lows to carefully navigate.
In 2014-15, just as he was taking office, the agency was in the middle of moving in to its current North Main Street location.
On March 29, 2018, Sumner and his staff had to deal with the unthinkable — when Officer Phillip Meacham was fatally shot and killed in the line of duty. It was the first such HPD incident since 1971.
In early 2019, another officer — Jeremy Davidson — survived shots to his arm and head, following in the pursuit of a stolen vehicle in Christian County.
This doesn’t include the fact that a global pandemic in COVID-19 has tested budgets and the department’s infrastructure for the last three years, while national unrest surrounding civil issues brought about urban escalation in the last 36 months. Which certainly includes the 2020 death of Louisville’s Breonna Taylor.
Sumner said he set his retirement out for next August because he wanted a smooth transition period for the next police chief coming into the department. From budgetary discussions to the inner workings, Sumner added that he remains “invested” in his home community — one that houses his entire family — and that will continue in this ceding of power and authority.
He laughed when noting that “earning his hard 20 years” made a retirement decision easy, but it was a relatively recent discussion with his family that he said helped make the choice palatable.
From this point, Sumner said the city as a whole will post the position of “police chief” for a period of time, taking in applications from anyone interested. Following the job’s closing, applications will be reviewed and narrowed down to candidacy options, at which point a committee and/or panel will begin hosting interviews and background checks for the next candidate.
Upon a hiring, Sumner will shift to an administrative role, borderline emeritus.
In 2018 Sumner was named the Kentucky League of Cities “City Employee of the Year.”
