Little Rock police announced Wednesday that officers will be required to work overtime in certain areas of the city beginning Friday as part of the department's latest effort to stop a surge in shootings, killings and other violent crimes.
Police said 45 officers per day -- 15 each from the department's downtown, northwest and southwest patrol divisions -- will work additional hours on mandatory patrols in high-crime areas. The patrols will take place during peak hours for criminal activity and will continue indefinitely, according to the department.
Police spokesman Lt. Steve McClanahan said the short-handed department, which is authorized to hire 590 officers and has 80 vacancies, will shift resources from its property crimes division to keep up the patrols.
"This isn't optional," McClanahan said. "Everybody on patrol and all property crime detectives will be required to do this."
It's the largest overtime detail that Police Chief Kenton Buckner has ordered, outside of special events such as the State Fair and the Little Rock Marathon, since he became chief in June 2014.
Buckner said Wednesday that about $2 million of the department's $71.6 million annual operating budget is set aside for overtime pay, and he's prepared to ask the city Board of Directors for more overtime funds, if necessary. He said he has concerns about officer fatigue but the "continued pattern of violence" in Little Rock must be addressed.
"We have to kind of hunker down and be able to give a little bit more," Buckner said of the officers. "They understand that. They're tough-minded folks, and they're prepared for that."
As of late Wednesday, the city had recorded 43 homicides so far this year. That's one more than police logged in all of 2016. It puts the city on pace for the highest number of killings since 1993, when police recorded 76 homicides.
Police had logged 2,094 violent crimes in Little Rock through Aug. 7, a 19 percent increase compared with the same period last year, according to preliminary department data.
The city's struggle against violent crime made international headlines last month when 25 people were shot at a downtown nightclub. The shooting at Power Ultra Lounge prompted authorities to create an FBI-led task force to target gangs and violent crime in Little Rock. The joint task force includes members of 10 law enforcement agencies, ranging from the local, state and federal level.
Also this year, Little Rock police created a special unit that targets violent criminals, and eased restrictions on vehicular chases.
Buckner said the department will continue to explore methods to reduce violent crime.
"We'll put [mandatory patrols] in place, and we'll make adjustments as necessary," he said.
McClanahan said the areas being patrolled will vary but certain "hot spots" will be more heavily patrolled than others. He cited the area of Asher Avenue and Fair Park Boulevard -- where four people were shot, one fatally, over the past few days -- as an example.
"Whatever the problem areas are for that particularly precinct, they will be working them," McClanahan said.
Arkansas State Police, at the request of Little Rock police, also have heightened patrols around the city.
State police spokesman Bill Sadler said troopers in the area of Asher Avenue and Roosevelt Road made at least 87 traffic stops Monday. He said the stops led to numerous citations, as well as arrests on drug and gun charges.
"We're open to doing anything we can to provide additional help for the city of Little Rock to combat the rising crime problem in the city," Sadler said. "It's an open invitation that we've extended to the city that dates back to the morning after the nightclub shooting."
Officer John Gilchrist, president of the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police, said mandatory overtime is within the labor agreement between the union and the city. He said officers are required to work overtime at special events, such as the State Fair and the Little Rock Marathon.
Gilchrist said many officers voluntarily work several hours of overtime each week. He said some won't like being forced to work overtime, though.
"I think we're certainly going to have some people who don't want to do it," he said. "But we're certainly going to have the same amount of people who say, 'I'm going to do what's necessary.' It will go both ways. But we all accepted a profession where we knew our shifts are often something other than what the norm is."
Gilchrist, like Buckner, said he was concerned about officer fatigue under the mandatory patrols.
"We've been handing out a lot of overtime to the point that officers weren't signing up for it any longer," Gilchrist said. "And I think that considering the violence in Little Rock and the short-handedness, [Buckner] had to implement something to combat not just the crime, but the short manpower.
"Once again, the men and women in this department are being asked to do more with less."
Information for this article was contributed by Ryan Tarinelli of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 08/17/2017