LITTLE ROCK — A Paragould Police Department proposal to begin foot patrols in high-crime areas with officers carrying semiautomatic rifles and requesting photo identification from people they stop has raised concern among residents and the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas.
The opposition has forced police in the Greene County town to reconsider how officers planned to conduct the patrols and led to the cancellation of two public meetings this week about the proposal, police Cpl. Brad Snyder said Tuesday.
Paragould Police Chief Todd Stovall announced the plan for the city’s Street Crimes Unit during a Dec. 13 public meeting after a recent crime spate. The patrols would have begun early next year.
In November, a 90-year-old Paragould man was shot and killed when intruders broke into his East Court Street home. Police said there have been several other burglaries and break-ins in the city recently.
The city planned to hold two public meetings this week to inform residents about the Street Crimes Unit but canceled them Tuesday in the “interest of public safety,” a department news release posted on its website said.
Stovall said the department was getting “nasty” comments about the proposal.
“We were afraid they’d spill over into the meetings,” he said.
Stovall said Tuesday evening that concerns arose after a story in the Paragould Daily Press outlined the proposal.
“The bottom line is that we are not going to do anything to violate anyone’s rights,” Snyder said.
Under the original proposal, Street Crimes Unit officers would patrol high-crime areas on foot — in some cases while armed with AR-15 rifles.
“Our residents on the east side of town called us asking for help,” Snyder said. “We began talking to them about what we could do. We held public meetings and asked, ‘What do you think?’ This has all blown up now.”
Stovall said that under the proposal, officers would simply ask residents they encounter for identification.
“We can’t demand their ID,” he said. “If they say, ‘No,’ then we can’t ask who they are.”
The proposal has alarmed Rita Sklar, the executive director of the Arkansas chapter of the ACLU.
“They are [planning on] conducting investigatory stops,” Sklar said. “The law requires [people] can be stopped and questioned if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is about to do something illegal.”
She said stopped residents don’t have to answer officers’ questions or provide photographic identification.
“If they live in a high-crime area and are simply out walking their dog, they’re not suspects,” she said. “None of this is acceptable under the law.”
Stovall said the department hasn’t decided what it will do now.
“We’ll do something,” he said. “We’re still talking about it. But we’re in a standby mode now.”
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 12/22/2012