Little Rock police chief quizzed at forum; patrols, diversity discussed

Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner is shown in this 2015 file photo.
Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner is shown in this 2015 file photo.

Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner met with southwest Little Rock residents Monday night to discuss crime statistics, police initiatives and community concerns, beginning a series of public forums across the city this month.

Buckner began his address at the city's Southwest Community Center by speaking about the diversity of the Police Department, a majority-white agency that has increased recruitment of other, minority-group members, particularly Hispanics, over the past year and a half.

The number of Spanish-speaking officers at the department reportedly increased from 12 to 17 last year, but Hispanics still accounted for fewer than 3 percent of roughly 526 sworn officers at the agency.

"Southwest [Little Rock], more so than other sections of our city, is in need of Spanish speakers," Buckner said. "It's not an accident that we have five Spanish speakers sitting in our recruit class ... they are our neighbors and it is important that when they call the police they can understand the language and they understand what's going on in the community."

More than three dozen people attended the meeting Monday, including patrol officers, division commanders, city directors, Mayor Mark Stodola and other elected officials.

Some questioned Buckner about the relocation of Community Oriented Police Program officers from the southwest division to the downtown division. Officers in the program work out of neighborhood resource centers to strengthen ties with residents.

But according to Buckner, there are fewer of those officers to go around. He said the department has 46 vacancies for sworn officers, and crime trends in certain downtown police districts made the move from the southwest division necessary.

"When I move people around, trust me, I'm not doing anything to alienate anyone," Buckner told attendees. "I have to cover these districts."

Data presented at the meeting show that between 2010 and 2015, the department hired 36.3 officers per year, while 37.17 officers left the department per year.

Several attendees praised the Police Department for a second-straight decrease in overall crime last year. Fewer property crimes, which account for more than three-quarters of crime in the city each year, drove the number of criminal incidents down to the lowest point since 1979.

The number of homicides last year, 31, was the lowest since 2010. But instances of violent crime increased across the city.

The neighborhood where Monday's forum took place ranked highly among the department's 24 districts in robberies and other violent offenses last year, according to police data. Buckner said many of the robberies were cases of "black-on-brown targeting" in the area.

He briefly mentioned the killing of Eunice Lopez, a 27-year-old woman who lived in the area and was shot to death in her driveway the morning of Jan. 31.

Three boys -- Kevin Williams Jr., 15, Ramale Collier, 18, and Darrell Keith Dixon, 15 -- were each charged with capital murder and aggravated robbery in the case.

Buckner, noting the age of the suspects, encouraged attendees of Monday's meeting to become involved with youths in their community.

"Do not expect the police to save your community," he said. "We have to work together."

Ronald Wilkerson, who runs a city-sponsored youth intervention program, said at the meeting that connecting with parents, as well as troubled children, is important.

"I run a positive program, and there are others who run positive programs," he said. "We can't serve them all, but we're doing our best to service parents who will work with us and bring them to us. On the other hand, you have parents that don't want to engage with us."

Other attendees raised questions of racial profiling by Little Rock police, the connection between unemployment and crime, an increase in vehicle thefts in southwest Little Rock, and the use of crime data.

The next forums this month are:

• Wednesday, 6 p.m., Roosevelt Thompson Library, 38 Rahling Circle, Little Rock.

• Monday, 6 p.m., Fulbright Elementary, 300 Pleasant Valley Drive.

• May 16, 6 p.m., Centre at University Park, 6401 W. 12th St.

• May 20, 6 p.m., Hall High School, 6700 H St.

• May 23, 6 p.m., Willie Hinton Neighborhood Resource Center, 3805 W. 12th St.

Metro on 05/03/2016

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