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| LRFD Captain Antwain Vernon blocking handicapped parking |
In December 2023 we received a tip that a Little Rock Fire Department employee was frequently parking their city issued ride and their personal ride in handicapped parking spaces at the Greens at Longhills apartment complex in Benton, AR. The tipster stated they had complained to the Fire Chief and for a short period of time the problem stopped but that it had started back up.
We made a Freedom of Information request to the city of Little Rock for the name and photo used for any city issued ID card along with a copy of the personnel file of the LRFD employee that had use of a truck marked "14D139".
The city sent some records, but the file was lacking usual personnel forms and employment information, including the application for employment.
One document that was in the file was a letter when he was hired. We have highlighted a particular paragraph that deals with employee conduct and how actions of an employee can reflect upon the Fire Department.
Turns out that Vernon is a Captain at LRFD being promoted to that rank in 2018.
That was not reflected in the file the city sent us.
We determined that Vernon did actually reside at that complex. And our verification process reveal some interesting information. Like he uses his city/work email address for personal business. Using his work email for personal business opens of the FOI door to get every one of the emails and attachments from that account.
We posted about Vernon's illegal parking on Twitter ... err X..., after we saw this post.
We also found out that Vernon doesn't like to pay his credit card bills in that credit card companies have been suing him since 2006.
And it appears that Vernon has been parking illegally in handicapped parking spots since he was 19 years old.
Vernon's behavior reflects poorly on the Little Rock Fire Department and the city of Little Rock.
The city and LRFD need to make sure that he stops parking in disabled spots and might need to take away his take-home vehicle.