The Little Rock Board of Directors will discuss today a board member's proposal that would require police officers to live inside city limits.
City Manager Bruce Moore opposes the residency requirement, which was placed on the board's agenda at the request of Ward 1 City Director Erma Hendrix.
When reached by phone Monday, Hendrix said she didn't want to comment on her proposed ordinance but that she "will have a lot to say" at tonight's meeting. It's at 4 p.m. in the second-floor boardroom at City Hall, 501 W. Markham.
Hendrix suggested a similar ordinance in 2012 that would have required Little Rock residency of all city employees. That ordinance was unanimously voted down by the board, with even Hendrix voting no because, she said, she wanted to seek input and offer it again at a later date.
The current proposal, as written, would require any newly hired police officer to live in the city or agree to move here, and would make an officer ineligible for continued employment if he moves outside of city limits at any point.
The requirement would only apply to those hired after the ordinance was enacted and would not be applied to candidates already selected to attend the July training school for recruits. It doesn't say whether civilian employees of the police department, such as secretaries, would have to follow the requirement. The ordinance only says "police officer."
"I've always said this very clearly, I would never support an ordinance that only impacted one department. That doesn't mean I would support it if it impacted all departments, either," Moore said at a recent meeting when Hendrix informed the board she planned to make the proposal. "I think it's bad public policy when you do that to single out one particular department."
As of last week, 66 percent -- 350 of 531 sworn Little Rock police officers -- lived outside the city. An additional 76 civilian Police Department employees don't live in Little Rock.
There are 181 sworn officers and 81 civilian Police Department employees who do live in the city.
The city already can't fill its 46 police vacancies, despite being the highest-paying Police Department in Arkansas and having good benefits, Moore said Monday. While the police chief is authorized to fill all 46 positions, the July recruit class is starting with just 35 candidates. Requiring city residency would limit the city even further, Moore said.
When requesting the residency requirement ordinance be drafted, Hendrix referenced ongoing racial tension around the country between police and communities.
"Am I off the chart by even asking if we do this?" she asked after Moore indicated his opposition. "What I hear you saying is this doesn't happen anywhere in the U.S., particularly where you've had these high incidents of crime against black males."
Moore told her he hadn't studied whether the cities that recently saw protests after black men died at the hands of police -- such as Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore and New York -- had residency requirements for their police officers.
The discussion and recommendations from the Justice Department's investigation into the Ferguson Police Department was centered on having better-trained officers and about diversity training, Moore said at the meeting.
"We in Little Rock have a diversity training contract that started last year and is a requirement for every officer. A lot of things that came out from the Justice Department and other sources, Little Rock is already doing them," he said. "Now, there's a lot of things we still need to do. We can always do things better."
He said Police Chief Kenton Buckner is trying to enhance the racial diversity of recruitment classes, adding that the majority of recruits from the last class were from a minority group.
"The chief has been very open about making sure we are community focused. This summer, the school resource officers, instead of being able to take vacation and all those things, they are going to be working with community centers where the [Prevention, Intervention and Treatment] programs are," he told the board that night.
According to a 2014 analysis by FiveThirtyEight.com, 15 of the 75 top cities by police force size had a residency requirement for officers. Among those cities are Memphis; New Orleans; Jackson, Miss.; Cincinnati; Boston; Pittsburgh; Philadelphia and Chicago. FiveThirtyEight, led by statistician Nate Silver, compiles or creates data to report on a variety of topics usually related to political news.
When Hendrix proposed a residency requirement of all Little Rock employees in 2012, there were members of the public who spoke in favor of the requirement. One resident said that the city had no problem asking Little Rock residents to approve a 1 percent sales tax in 2011 to create new jobs, but then didn't want to employ its own residents.
At the time, the only city director besides Hendrix who spoke in favor of a residency requirement was Ward 2's Ken Richardson. He said the board should test the process and see how it works.
Richardson said Monday that he hasn't read the new ordinance and isn't sure what his position will be, but that he does see benefits of residency.
"I certainly believe there are benefits for people who work in the city to live in the city -- financial benefits in terms of having an increased tax base. It also gives an opportunity for people who work for the city to view this place where they work as part of their own home. There would be more community, more buy-in and more connection and a tie to the community," Richardson said.
Little Rock adopted a residency requirement for all city employees in 1994, but rescinded it in 1995. A compromise was put in place that required city officials to favor applicants who are city residents if the choice is between them and an equally qualified out-of-town applicant. That is still practiced today.
Moore also requires all department heads to live in the city.
Metro on 06/09/2015