Someone loitering near your home or steal something out of your garage or carport? Little Rock Police ain't got time for that says LRPD Chief Kenton Buckner.
Back in May, Chief Buckner told a reporter for KTHV that their agency is down 50 sworn in officers, which is forcing him to move officers around to meet the highest priority safety need.
“We had to take COP officers from all three of our patrol divisions to help fill some of those gaps, and those folks are still in those positions,” said Buckner.
COP officers are Community Oriented Police, meaning they target niche neighborhoods, helping crime prevention.
With low recruitment numbers, now those COP officers are being moved to high priority crimes, like 911 calls and public danger.
“We're certainly going to respond to a domestic violence call a lot quicker than we would be for a stolen bike,” said Buckner.
Which makes sense, but in Little Rock, 80 percent of crime is property theft.
Working with short staff, Chief Buckner is looking to other options to tackle property crimes.
“Maybe do that via telephone or some online service because I want to reduce the number of calls I’m sending officers to that don't involve violent crime,” said Buckner.
This is what happens when you have a police department that only has 34% of their officers that actually reside in the city of Little Rock.
These officers don't want to live in Little Rock, next door to you, or send their kids to school with your kids, so why would they care what happens to your property?
It's time for a change in city government... from the mayor, city manager, board members down to department heads.