The traffic was heavy as we drove down Red Wolf Boulevard in Jonesboro on the morning of Dec. 17. The destination was the Convocation Center on the campus of Arkansas State University. I had heard about the Northeast Arkansas Invitational Tournament all of my life but had never attended the event. I wanted to be there for the first day of the 70th edition of the high school basketball tournament, which began in 1947. As the Christmas shopping season hit its stride, the parking lot of every restaurant and store along the busy street appeared full. For Jonesboro, these are the good ol' days.
There was a time when residents of Northeast Arkansas gravitated toward Memphis--they read Memphis newspapers, watched Memphis television stations, listened to Memphis radio stations, went to Memphis to visit the doctor, shop, eat out, attend concerts, etc. Fueled in part by the public perception that Memphis has become a dangerous, dirty city with bad traffic, Jonesboro has become the true regional center for Northeast Arkansas. In 1960, the city had 21,418 residents. By the 2010 census, Jonesboro had 67,263 residents. More than 75,000 people now call the city home.
Compare that explosive growth to what has occurred in nearby Memphis. In 1960, Memphis had a population of 505,563. By the 2010 census, there were 298,645 people living within the 1960 city limits. That's a loss of more than 200,000 people in those neighborhoods. People in small towns throughout Northeast Arkansas have, in many instances, turned their backs on Memphis. They read the Jonesboro newspaper, watch Jonesboro television stations, listen to Jonesboro radio stations, go to Jonesboro to visit the doctor, shop, eat out, attend concerts, etc.
There's a lesson in these numbers for the state's largest city despite the fact that there's no comparison between what has happened in Memphis and Little Rock as far as population loss. While Memphis has been bleeding population since 1960, Little Rock's population has almost doubled from 107,813 in the 1960 census to almost 200,000 residents today. Due to white flight fueled in large part by school desegregation and long-running court battles, surrounding cities have grown at an even faster rate. Conway's population soared from 9,791 in the 1960 census to 58,908 in the 2010 census. Conway now has more than 65,000 residents. During that same period, Benton grew from 10,399 to 30,681; Cabot from 1,321 to 23,776; and Bryant from 737 to 16,688. Strong growth continues in each of those cities.
In the days leading up to Christmas, news coverage in Arkansas focused on the murder of Acen King, a 3-year-old boy who died in Little Rock the same day that I went to Jonesboro. The boy was shot while riding in the back seat of his grandmother's car. A suspect was arrested on the evening of Dec. 22. By then, the killing had received widespread national media coverage. Several weeks earlier, a 2-year-old girl died in Little Rock after being shot while riding in the back seat of a vehicle with her mother.
City officials can point to a declining overall crime rate. But at a time when local television newscasts focus on crime stories--they're easier to cover and more interesting to the average viewer than stories about government and public policy--people in much of the state increasingly view the capital city as a place they don't want to visit. Perception becomes reality.
In a Dec. 19 story on the front page of this newspaper, Noel Oman reported: "Little Rock is looking at an array of options to more quickly fill the ranks of its depleted police force, including returning to patrol duty the nearly 20 officers now assigned to the city's airport. ... The 500-officer department has more than 60 vacancies, and the number of openings has been growing for the past six years. Having that many openings in the ranks has an effect on police response times and the overall visibility of officers in the city, [Little Rock Police Chief Kenton] Buckner has said. He said the vacancies leave fewer officers available to attend outreach events and force police to focus on their primary obligations, such as responding to 911 calls. The problem is more officers are leaving the force, for retirement and other reasons."
There always will be high crime rates in neighborhoods where there are large numbers of young men raised in poverty in single-parent or no-parent households; young men for whom joblessness, hopelessness and violence have become a way of life. There are societal problems that go much deeper than the crime statistics.
But back to that perception issue. In 2015, Little Rock recorded the lowest number of criminal cases since 1979. People across the Little Rock television market don't know that, though. They think just the opposite is true. If city leaders don't want to see Little Rock cease to be the state's shopping and entertainment capital, their highest priority in 2017 must be to do whatever is necessary to ensure all police vacancies are filled. There's not even a close second when it comes to priorities. A message must be sent to the rest of the state that Little Rock is addressing crime.
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola told Oman, "We've lost 37 officers on average over the last six years and have hired 31 officers on average over the last six years. That's 36 positions less. That has to change." No truer words have ever been spoken.
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Freelance columnist Rex Nelson is the director of corporate community relations for Simmons First National Corp. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 01/04/2017