Conway police hearing reviews investigation that led to Officer Britney Byrd’s termination

Conway — A Conway Civil Service Commission hearing on the administrative investigation into Officer Britney Byrd’s response to a mass shooting reviewed evidence that investigators say showed policy violations in how she drove to the scene and how she used (and later deactivated) on‑vehicle recording equipment.

The commission heard testimony from Lieutenant Tom Kennedy, who led internal investigation AI255‑04, and from Byrd’s attorney, Angela Byrd. Kennedy told the panel he reviewed park surveillance, officers’ dash and body camera footage, radio traffic and GPS logs and concluded Byrd drove a circuitous route, did not use full emergency lights or sirens for most of the response and turned off her dash camera during the drive. “504 Conway — there’s multiple, multiple shots fired out here at Fifth Ave,” Kennedy played from Byrd’s radio transmission as evidence the officer called the shooting into dispatch, and said the GPS and video suggested her driving speed averaged roughly 25.3 miles per hour over the stretch he analyzed.

Why it matters: the commission must decide whether the department followed its own rules in firing Byrd and, if so, whether the recommended penalty is appropriate. The review board found probable violations of department rules covering truthfulness, conduct, body‑worn cameras and emergency vehicle operations and recommended termination; Chief Chris Harris then terminated Byrd on June 30, 2025, according to city counsel’s opening statement.

What investigators said they found

Lieutenant Tom Kennedy, identified as the investigator who compiled AI255‑04, described a wide‑scope inquiry that examined roughly a month of work, including 17 personnel interviews, six park cameras, about 15 officer body‑cam streams and dozens of hours of radio and non‑emergency calls. He said he narrowed the probe after supervisors raised concerns about Byrd’s response and then obtained GPS exports that plotted vehicle positions in Google Earth.

Kennedy testified that the GPS trace he analyzed showed Byrd pulling out of the funeral‑home/church parking area, traveling south on Central Landing, then west on Sixth Street, north on First Avenue and east onto Third before curving onto Maple toward the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue Park. For the roughly 0.94‑mile stretch from the Sixth Street roundabout to the Maple curve, he said the travel time (2 minutes, 14 seconds) equated to an average speed of about 25.3 mph. Kennedy said other responding officers’ calculated averages were higher (for example, Officer Autumn Smith about 47.8 mph; Officer Watkins about 34.7 mph), and that several officers arrived at the park before Byrd (Officer Sean Riddle, he said, in 3 minutes, 8 seconds).

Kennedy said he was troubled that Byrd’s vehicle recording stopped soon after the shooting call and that her body‑worn camera was not active for most of her response; he testified that in Conway’s system, activating full emergency lights or the siren ordinarily triggers the dash‑cam/body‑cam link, preserving at least 30 seconds of prerecord footage. “For there to be shots fired, and then there would be radio traffic that there’s an actual victim … and for someone not to use lights and sirens is unheard of,” Kennedy testified.

The department’s review board, Kennedy said, identified potential policy violations including conduct unbecoming, unsatisfactory performance, failures related to truthfulness, insubordination, body‑worn camera rules and the department’s emergency vehicle policy. He said the majority recommended termination; the chief implemented that recommendation on June 30, 2025.

Defense arguments and procedural objections

Angela Byrd, attorney for the terminated officer, framed her client’s record as long‑standing and positive: Byrd joined Conway PD in February 2015, earned awards and had no prior discipline, she said. Byrd’s counsel argued the internal probe was “open in scope” and would necessarily examine many officers, and that the defense needed comparable information about other officers’ conduct to evaluate any penalty. “This commission was created so that you would be a balance … for justice,” Angela Byrd told the commissioners, urging them to consider Byrd’s full record and the broader context of how Conway PD handled events that weekend.

Defense counsel raised procedural objections during the hearing. They contested the department’s disclosure of the specific basis for the charge of “untruthfulness,” argued some evidence should be limited as irrelevant to Byrd’s response, and objected to witnesses hearing the livestream of the hearing while seated outside the room. The commission directed that witnesses not be exposed to testimony and held some objections under advisement; it also sustained at least one defense objection during the hearing’s opening remarks.

Evidence shown at the hearing

The hearing record included multiple video sources: a dash‑cam clip produced from Byrd’s car that stops shortly after she pulled out of the church/funeral‑home lot; church security video that shows Byrd and Riddle running to their cars after gunfire; officers’ body‑worn camera footage from the scene; and GPS export files that the investigator said were embedded into Google Earth Pro for route plotting. Kennedy said he requested Byrd’s vehicle GPS first (April 28) after supervisors alerted him to rumblings about a non‑response; he later requested available GPS for other units (May 11). Kennedy acknowledged discrepancies between timestamps on GPS files and dash/body camera clips and said he adjusted for a roughly 30‑second offset when comparing files.

Plaintiffs’ and defense counsel also debated technical claims: Byrd’s attorney said a dash‑cam popup requiring a user to tap an on‑screen “OK” could explain why the recording ended; Kennedy said he tried to reproduce that popup and could not. The investigator characterized the dash‑cam interruption as “intentional” and said he considered the shutdown evidence that Byrd disabled recording during the response; defense counsel said the department had not provided full discovery explaining the system behavior.

Separate responses by other officers

Kennedy told the commission he examined the responses by several other officers and presented their travel times and estimated average speeds to the board for comparison. He described Officer Riddle’s actions as a prompt code‑3 response after radio traffic indicated a shooting victim and said Riddle reached the park faster than Byrd. Kennedy said at least six units’ GPS traces were available for the event window and that some officers drove at elevated speeds but with emergency equipment active.

What remains contested

Defense counsel argued the department’s inquiry amounted to harassment tied to prior complaints Byrd had raised inside the department and to a pending federal lawsuit; counsel said the investigation’s broad scope risked conflating unrelated events. Kennedy and counsel for the city disputed that characterization and told the commission the inquiry was justified by the severity of the shooting and by discrepancies that appeared in camera and GPS records.

Next steps and context

The commission heard the investigation’s factual presentation and technical exhibits during the hearing and paused for further testimony. No new personnel action was taken during the session; the record shows the departmental review board previously recommended termination and that Chief Chris Harris signed a termination letter dated June 30, 2025. Commissioners asked for clarifications about GPS time formats and the dash‑cam logs, and the hearing record indicates additional evidentiary and procedural issues — including the department’s timing and disclosure of evidence — remained unresolved as of the session.

Ending

The hearing assembled a large and complex evidentiary record — GPS exports, several officer camera streams, park surveillance and dozens of radio and non‑emergency calls — that the commission will weigh against department policy and process rules before rendering its own administrative determination. Commissioners emphasized they were trying to balance evidentiary fairness and the department’s need to enforce policy; defense counsel reiterated requests for fuller disclosures and for the commission to consider Byrd’s prior performance and the broader departmental context before affirming the chief’s termination decision.