Prevention program aims to reduce violent crime in Little Rock

Little Rock police have begun training through a U.S. Department of Justice program aimed at reducing violent crime in certain cities.

A group of officers this month completed a personal-safety course in Bryant, and the Police Department's crime analyst last week completed a course on using social media to investigate criminal activity, according to Assistant Chief Alice Fulk. Both courses were taken through the federal Violence Reduction Network, which Little Rock joined in September.

The program offers no money, but provides an infusion of training and resources to cities where violent crime rates are significantly higher than the national norm, according to the Department of Justice. Though crime in Little Rock fell to a 20-year low last year, instances of aggravated assault, robbery and homicide remained well above cities of comparable size.

West Memphis; Compton, Calif.; Flint, Mich.; and Newark, N.J. also joined the two-year program in September.

Fulk said the program has already helped the Little Rock Police Department expand its relationship with the local offices of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; U.S. Marshals Service; and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. She said several agencies have started sending officials to the Police Department's weekly crime statistics meetings.

"Now, when you're there and you're a robbery detective or you're a violent crime detective, you know who you can call and you don't have to go through so many channels. And I think it helps. There's definitely been an increase in cooperation," Fulk said.

More training sessions are set for next month.

Two Little Rock police sergeants will travel Tuesday to Philadelphia, where they'll meet with FBI officials for two days of instruction on domestic violence intervention. After "creeping up rather high" in recent years, instances of domestic violence have become an area of concern for Little Rock police, Fulk said.

Domestic assault has continued increasing in 2015. Police data as of Nov. 16 show 37.6 percent more domestic assaults than the 300 reported through the same period last year.

Fulk said police were exploring, through the Violence Reduction Network, whether a domestic violence review board composed of police officers, prosecutors and abuse shelter officials could help reverse that trend.

"It would be going back and reviewing, is there something that could've been done different? Not just police-wise, but community-wise. And that's why there's so many people that are interested in it, because you look at it from a prevention standpoint -- and sometimes there's things you just can't prevent -- but, obviously, there are things to look to see if there were any obvious holes in the process, something that we could've done," she said.

Little Rock police on Dec. 10 will host a Violence Reduction Network official who specializes in federal grant-writing. Fulk said it will be the first of many meetings in the process of obtaining such funds. She and Chief Kenton Buckner have said the department -- which is interested in buying body-worn cameras for officers but lacks the money -- plans to pursue the grants more aggressively.

Police are also looking into a research partnership with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock criminology and sociology departments.

Fulk said Little Rock police have outlined multiple other areas in which they will seek training in the new year. One is police-community relations and ethics.

"We can do the greatest job in the world investigating crimes and trying to prevent crimes, but we're not going to solve it without community involvement," she said.

The department is interested in obtaining two pieces of investigative technology through the program, as well. Fulk said both are currently beyond the department's budget.

One is link analysis software, which is designed to identify and evaluate relationships in data sets. Law enforcement officials have used it for counterterrorism, fraud detection and intelligence-gathering through the Internet.

The other is equipment to analyze shell casings through the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network. Little Rock police, like many police departments, send shell casings to larger outside agencies for criminal analysis, according to Fulk. With its own equipment, the department would be able to identify a gun used in a shooting, connect it to other shootings and pursue leads much faster.

The Camden Police Department in New Jersey obtained such equipment through the Violence Reduction Network last year.

It was among six cities selected as the program's first participants. Detroit; Chicago; Wilmington, Del.; and the neighboring California cities of Oakland and Richmond also joined in 2014.

Fulk said the program, so far, has shown promise in Little Rock. But there are many issues yet to address, she cautioned.

"We didn't get here overnight, and we're not going to get out of the problem overnight. It's going to be a slow process," she said.

Metro on 11/30/2015

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