Who is Paula Blart? How a private investigator ended up dressed like an El Dorado Police CID, riding in a city police vehicle, and why the paperwork still doesn’t answer the questions.

 By Rena Borden - El Dorado, AR

Kandice Studdard, a/k/a Paula Blart

On November 17, 2024, a vigil was held for Ieshia Jackson, a woman who disappeared from El Dorado in October 2020. The vigil was hosted by Parents United Against Youth Violence Code Red, a local nonprofit organization.

Parked nearby was a silver SUV issued by the City of El Dorado to Detective Shelly Rowland of the El Dorado Police Department. Detective Rowland was in the driver's seat. Sitting in the passenger seat was a woman no one in attendance recognized.

Neither woman introduced herself. When asked if they would like to say a few words, both declined.

Both appeared to be wearing El Dorado Police Department apparel. The unidentified woman was wearing a shirt displaying the El Dorado Police

Department Criminal Investigation Division insignia. She also appeared to be wearing a badge and carrying a firearm, just as Detective Rowland was.

Who was she?

What was her relationship with the El Dorado Police Department?

Following the vigil, I contacted the founder of Parents United Against Youth Violence Code Red and asked whether she had contacted anyone with the

City of El Dorado or the El Dorado Police Department about the unidentified armed woman who appeared to be representing EPD.

No, I didn't." That response was concerning to say the least.

A nonprofit organization whose mission is to combat violence and promote public safety would, one would think, have an interest in addressing questions about an unidentified armed person appearing to represent a police department at a public event honoring a young woman who had already been missing for four years.

Months later, the issue resurfaced when reports circulated that a woman had been pulled over by someone allegedly impersonating a police officer.

On April 23, 2025, City Council Member Willie McGhee questioned Police Chief Kenny Hickman during a City Council meeting about a separate report involving someone who may have impersonated a police officer during a traffic stop.

According to the El Dorado News Times, McGhee said a constituent reported that someone driving a large dark SUV may have conducted a traffic stop

while appearing not to be a police officer. Chief Hickman responded that officers investigated the report but were unable to verify who the person was.

I guess the Flock camera system wasn't much help there.

During that discussion, I attempted to provide additional information. The article reported that Council Member McGhee acknowledged I might have additional details.

Chief Hickman stated that the matter I was attempting to raise was separate from the alleged traffic stop. According to the El Dorado News Times, he said: "The situation she referred to, we had already looked into and it doesn't fit the allegation at all."

He also stated: "It was already vetted by the police department, and it was not someone impersonating a police officer."

Those were two completely different issues.

One involved an unconfirmed report of a possible police impersonator during a traffic stop.

The other involved a woman attending a public vigil while wearing El Dorado Police Department Criminal Investigation Division identifying apparel, carrying a firearm, and arriving in an El Dorado Police Department vehicle alongside Detective Shelly Rowland.

The woman was later identified through a Facebook post on her business page, Kandis Studdard Investigations. That post appeared the same week the issue became public during the City Council meeting and after the El Dorado News Times published two articles about it, several months after the vigil itself.

Before this issue was ever discussed publicly, I had already submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the El Dorado Police Department.

On March 26, 2025, I requested the name and hire date of the woman pictured arriving with Detective Rowland. I also requested documentation showing Detective Rowland had permission to use her city issued vehicle during personal time.

Chief Kenny Hickman initially responded: "The final two do not exist."

Because that response did not clearly answer my questions, I requested clarification.

Chief Hickman then replied: "Hire date of the lady in the picture. She does not work here and never has."

Regarding Detective Rowland's city vehicle, he wrote: "Permission to use a work vehicle on personal time. There is no existing document.”

In other words, EPD's was clear. The woman was not an employee of the El Dorado Police Department and never had been. EPD also stated that no 

document existed authorizing Detective Rowland to use her city issued vehicle during personal time.

Yet the public explanation later offered was different.

Chief Hickman told the El Dorado News Times that the woman was a licensed private investigator assisting EPD with an active investigation, had been deputized in Union County, worked as a reserve officer for another agency, and attended the gathering with an EPD investigator.

https://www.eldoradonews.com/news/2025/apr/24/report-about-possible-officer-impersonator-no t/

 https://www.eldoradonews.com/news/2025/apr/27/el-dorado-police-still-investigating-report-of/

So, I have questions.

According to EPD's own written policy, an employee is defined as sworn law enforcement officers and civilian personnel employed by the department. I found nothing in the policy stating that simply assisting EPD authorizes a private investigator to wear El Dorado Police Department Criminal Investigation Division identifying apparel. 

The policy also addresses civilian passengers in department vehicles and states that approval from the Chief of Police is required.

So far, the records I have received do not answer one simple question.

Who authorized Kandis Studdard to wear El Dorado Police Department identifying apparel?

The records also indicate Detective Rowland allowed Ms. Studdard to ride in a vehicle issued to her by the El Dorado Police Department. According to EPD policy, civilian passengers require approval from the Chief of Police. To date, EPD has stated that no documentation exists authorizing Ms. Studdard to ride in that vehicle.

Likewise, EPD has stated that no existing document authorizes Detective Rowland to use her city issued vehicle to attend the vigil. If such authorization existed, one would expect documentation reflecting that approval. So far, none has been produced.

On July 2, 2026, I also submitted an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act requests to the Union County Sheriff's Office seeking records regarding Ms. Studdard's authority, any deputization, and documentation authorizing her to wear EPD Criminal Investigation Division identifying apparel.

The Sheriff's Office produced a reserve appointment document and responded, "This is the only paperwork I have."

That document differs from the appointment document Ms. Studdard previously posted on social media expressing her appreciation for being deputized by then Sheriff Ricky Roberts. (Ricky Roberts stepped down from Sheriff to return back to the EPD as Chief. Chief Hickman resigned in October of 2025.)

I also submitted a FOIA request to CLEST seeking records related to Ms. Studdard's appointment. According to the response I received, no records were produced showing she had been appointed as a reserve deputy for the Union County Sheriff's Office.

CLEST rules require law enforcement agencies to furnish completed initial employment or appointment information within ten days after employment or appointment.

The records I have received raise additional questions about how and when Ms. Studdard's appointment was documented.

If Ms. Studdard was not an employee of the El Dorado Police Department, as Chief Hickman stated in writing, why was she wearing clothing identifying herself with the Criminal Investigation Division?

Where is the written authorization permitting her to wear EPD identifying apparel?

Where is the approval authorizing her to ride in a city issued police vehicle? Where is the documentation defining her role while assisting the department? These are straightforward questions the public has a right to be asking.

The public has a right to know who is appearing in our community armed, wearing law enforcement identifying apparel, and traveling in taxpayer funded police vehicles.

When the annual vigil was held the following year, Detective Rowland and Ms. Studdard looked much different than they had the year before. Ms. Studdard waved at me before pulling out her phone and recording me throughout the event.

Meanwhile, Ieshia Jackson has now been missing for nearly six years.

When someone who is not an employee appears in public wearing law enforcement identifying apparel, displaying what appears to be a badge, carrying a firearm, and arriving in a city issued police vehicle, the public has every right to ask questions.

That is not an attack on law enforcement.

They are questions about public safety, accountability, and transparency. Public trust is hard to earn and easy to lose.

It is also worth noting that Detective Rowland searched my vehicle twenty eight times in just nine days during April 2025 while I was submitting Arkansas Freedom of Information Act requests to local government and attending city council meetings regarding Detective Rowland and Ms. Studdard. On three of those searches, Detective Rowland used Ieshia Jackson's case number as the justification for querying my license plate through the Flock camera system. She also searched my son , a close friend and her security guard on a night when we were all parked beside each other.

Detective Shelly Rowland is also a defendant in a civil lawsuit alleging she wrongfully arrested a local man on three separate occasions for a crime he did not commit. During her deposition, Detective Rowland testified that she did not realize the language she used in a sworn affidavit was problematic until after the civil lawsuit was filed and the issue was brought to her attention. The case is scheduled for a jury trial on September 28, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. in the United States Western District of Arkansas Court in El Dorado, Arkansas.

Detective Rowland has been involved in numerous criminal investigations that have affected real people and real families. When investigators use language that can change the meaning of evidence, it does not just impact one case.

If everything that occurred was legitimate, the documentation should exist. If it was not, then the public deserves an honest explanation.

Transparency should never be viewed as a threat. Citizens should not have to fear retaliation because they ask questions or request public records.

Accountability is not an attack on local government or law enforcement.

In my case asking those questions was followed by repeated searches of my vehicle through the Flock Camera System. 

My child was also searched.

Friends and people connected to me were searched as well.

Law enforcement exists to protect and serve the public, not to intimate them.

The message should never be if you ask questions there will be consequences.

 

The message should be if you wear the badge and violate policy or public trust, we should expect that there will be consequences for those actions.

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Rena Borden is a Snarky Media Group Journalist that manages our South Arkansas Bureau.