The Little Rock Police Department has organized Little Rock into three geographic divisions, Downtown, Southwest and Northwest.
If you live in the Northwest Division, LRPD will be slow to respond to your calls if at all. Response time for the Northwest division is much slower that the other two divisions.
Hilgeman said they're still working to open a new police substation in west Little Rock at the Pankey Community Center which he says should lower response times. He says adding more police officers would lower the response times as well.
If you live in the Northwest Division, LRPD will be slow to respond to your calls if at all. Response time for the Northwest division is much slower that the other two divisions.
LRPD Officer Richard Hilgeman calls the delayed response "stressful."
OFFICER RICHARD HILGEMAN |
Hilgeman said there is a slightly delayed response time for people who live in the city's Northwest Division.
According to statistics from June 2016 the slight delay is almost double for the Northwest division than in the Downtown and Southwest divisions.
Hilgeman said they're still working to open a new police substation in west Little Rock at the Pankey Community Center which he says should lower response times. He says adding more police officers would lower the response times as well.
THE NEVER USED AND UNFINISHED JOSEPHINE PANKEY EDUCATION CENTER |
In November of 2013 the Little Rock Board of Directors approved the creation of the LRPD Panky Substation in the vacant and never used Josephine Pankey Education Center. The center sits on property that was owned by the Little Rock Public School District and deeded to the city in February 2014. One million dollars from a one cent sales tax measure is to be used to make internal improvements and complete the parking lot (unless the city used the funds for other purposes).
The existing Northwest Division station is located at 10001 Kanis Road and is only 6 miles or 10 minutes from the Josephine Pankey Education Center at 13640 Cantrell Road.
A call made to LRPD on August 1st about a stolen lawnmower in West Little Rock, had a much longer response time.
At approximately 7:30 p.m. a WLR homeowner observed three black males in a white Chevrolet SUV with Arkansas license plate 845 WTF drive off with their lawnmower. A call was immediately made to 911. Almost three and a half hours later, LRPD stopped in (without the lawnmover). The residence where the theft took place is approximately 2 miles from the Northwest LRPD Station. Incredible.
LRPD needs to stop making excuses and don that expensive riot gear and protect the citizens of Little Rock.
As long as a majority of LRPD personnel refuse to live in the city, the problems are just going to continue to grow.