Arkansas officer faces discipline after posing for photo in clown garb

Days after multiple clown sightings were reported near White Hall, one of the city’s school resource officers posed for a photo dressed in a clown costume, an official said. That photo made it onto the Internet, and the officer now faces disciplinary action.

Mickey Buffkin, an investigator with White Hall police, said officer Dustin Summers made a “bad judgement call” when he posed for the photo Sept. 20. Summers is the school resource officer for the elementary schools in the White Hall School District, according to the department's website.

The photo “was just something him and his friends were doing at home,” Buffkin said. After the photo made it onto social media, the police department opened an internal investigation. Buffkin said he couldn’t comment on the consequences Summers is facing, citing the ongoing investigation, but did say Summers is still an officer at the department.

“He is an outstanding officer,” Buffkin said, adding that the photo was a combination of poor decision-making and bad timing.

Heath Bennett, an assistant superintendent for the school district, said Tuesday that the investigation was a police matter only.

Buffkin, White Hall Mayor Noel Foster and a news release from the department said Summers was not connected to the recently reported clown sightings near the city.

Foster said there were two or three clown sightings in Pine Bluff near its border with White Hall earlier this month, as Arkansas Online previously reported. Pine Bluff police also responded to a clown sighting the night of Sept. 18 behind the Tractor Supply store at 6309 Sheridan Road. A police spokesman said the clown reportedly had a machete or another object in his hand.

The clown-sighting trend has made its way north, too. In an email, Sgt Brian Dedrick, a spokesman for North Little Rock police, said his department received “a couple” of unsubstantiated calls about clowns last week. Clown sightings have been reported in several Southern states since late August.

With the recent sightings near White Hall in mind, the police department apologized Tuesday for causing any concern and affirmed that it “takes this matter seriously and holds its officers to a high standard of conduct.”

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