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Sacked HPD captain is under a criminal investigation, council is told

Kenny Hipps

By Bill Moss, Published: February 6, 2026

A veteran Hendersonville police officer was fired from his job last month and currently faces a criminal investigation of allegations that he billed a private company for off-duty hours at the same time he was on duty in his police job, the Hendersonville City Council was told Thursday night after it emerged from a closed door session to discuss a personnel matter.

In open session, Police Chief Blair Myhand strode to the lectern in full uniform and read a statement outlining the internal affairs investigation into the actions of Capt. Kenneth "Kenny" Hipps.

“The Hendersonville Police Department received an internal complaint on Tuesday, Jan. 13, involving the misuse of off-duty employment by Capt. Kenneth Hipps. An internal investigation was immediately begun that resulted in his termination on Jan. 27," Myhand said.

"To ensure an independent and unbiased review of Hipps’ actions, I requested the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to conduct a criminal investigation, and I notified District Attorney Andrew Murray of same. The North Carolina SBI is investigating this allegation at this time."

In the termination letter Myhand sent to Hipps on Jan. 27, Myhand said that the captain had clocked hours at a private extra duty company at the same time he was on duty with the city police department.

"... On multiple occasions, you clocked in with our private extra duty management company and were paid for extra duty work during your regularly scheduled workdays with the Hendersonville Police Department," the chief wrote. "A comparison of your Hendersonville requested leave records with the extra duty assignments shows that you were, in fact, working for the City of Hendersonville during these extra duty work assignments, and not working at the private facility for which you had clocked in. This resulted in the private facility paying for many hours of private duty police service that they did not receive."

Hipps tried to justified his actions as routine, according to the termination letter.

"Your allegation that this type of behavior was an accepted practice at the Hendersonville Police Department, offered in an attempt to mitigate your own conduct, has been investigated and found to be without merit," Myhand wrote. "For this reason, I caution you against perpetuating these types of allegations."

Myhand also confirmed to Hipps the date and location of a "name clearing hearing," which was scheduled for Tuesday at City Hall. The city did not immediately respond to the Lightning's inquiry Thursday night as to the outcome of the hearing.

City Manager John Connet told the council that the city's communications director, Allison Justus, would be sending to the news media a copy of the termination letter received, which happened within minutes after the council meeting was adjourned.

"It is a criminal investigation. We don't want to do anything to hinder that. We wanted our citizens to know that we take these allegations and this kind of action very seriously, and that is not the culture we want in our organization. We wanted you to hear it from us first and be very transparent. That is what the city council expects of their staff, that's what they demand of us, so we wanted to do that at this time.”

Myhand is a U.S. Army veteran who served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, a former Washington, D.C., Metro police officer and former police chief in Clayton in Eastern North Carolina who is in line to become president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. He concluded his remarks by pledging his department's ongoing commitment to accountability.

"I will say personally that allegations of misconduct in our department will never go overlooked and we will always hold ourselves accountable for our actions," he said. “We are already in the process of implementing new systems that will prevent this sort of thing from happening again in the future. I want everybody to know the actions of Capt. Hipps do not define who we are as an agency."

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