Little Rock crime data shows increase in violence, relatively low total crime

Violence up, but overall rise lesser

Crime in Little Rock 1985-2016
Crime in Little Rock 1985-2016

An increase in violent crime that began late in 2016 and continued this year has caught the attention of Little Rock police and city leaders, but department data show total crime in the city last year was relatively low.

Police data show the number of criminal offenses rose 7.4 percent last year from the 15,699 offenses recorded in 2015. The figure recorded in 2015 was the lowest in at least 36 years. Police said it was more probable for crime to increase after that historic low than to continue falling.

Crime did increase. But the 16,864 criminal offenses police recorded last year was the fourth-lowest total since at least 1985, according to department data. It’s well below figures recorded in the early 1990s, during the height of gang violence in Little Rock. Data show that between 1987 and 1997, police recorded more than 21,000 criminal offenses each year. The highest number of offenses recorded in that period was 28,700 in 1991.

Little Rock police, like most law enforcement agencies, classify homicide, aggravated assaults, robbery and rape as violent offenses. Burglary, larceny, vehicle theft and arson are classified as property crimes.

Though the total number of criminal offenses in 2016 was lower than many past years, several months were marked by high-profile killings that underscored an increase in violent crime.

In January, Eunice Lopez, 27, was robbed and fatally shot while holding her 2-year-old daughter outside her home, police reported.

In June, Harold Byrd, 77, was paying for his meal at a Little Rock diner when an armed robber shot him in the head, according to police.

The frequency of homicides increased toward the end of the year. In fact, half of the city’s 42 homicides in 2016 came in the final four months.

“That was just a terrible end to the year for us,” Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner said in an interview earlier this year.

Those killed during that period included toddlers Ramiya Reed and Acen King. Police said both were slain by gunfire while riding in vehicles with relatives.

Ramiya’s death intensified a violent and long-running feud between two rival groups that has continued this year, according to a memo from City Manager Bruce Moore.

Little Rock police recorded 3,066 violent offenses last year, the 12th-highest annual total since 1985. It’s a 2.4 percent increase compared with the 2,993 violent offenses logged in 2015.

The number of people injured by gunfire also rose in 2016, according to police data. There were 150 people injured by gunfire last year, a 27 percent increase from the year before. In 2014, 98 people were hurt by gunfire.

Police recorded 13,798 property crimes last year, an 8.6 percent increase compared with 2015, according to department data.

The increase in overall crime reflected a nationwide trend last year, according to the FBI. The agency reported a 5.3 percent rise in criminal offenses through the first six months of 2016. That figure is based on data reported independently by more than 13,000 law enforcement agencies.

The FBI had not released data for the second half of the year. But a study of the country’s largest cities by the Brennan Center for Justice found the increase in total crime likely continued to the end of 2016.

The center reported that annual fluctuations in crime are normal and that crime nationally remains at historic lows. The study states that “the average person in a large urban area is safer walking on the street today than he or she would have been at almost any time in the past 30 years.”

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola framed crime in the Arkansas capital in similar terms. He said the recent increase in violent crime is concerning, but noted that figures recorded in the ’90s were much worse.

Stodola said the city is working to reverse the recent increase in violent crime, but police need help from witnesses and other community members.

“If we can get people to come forward,” he said, “I think we can put a stop to a lot of it.”

An Arkansas Democrat-Gazette review of Little Rock homicide cases over the past four years found few socalled random killings. Most homicides involved perpetrators and victims who had some kind of relationship — family members, romantic rivals, friends, drug dealers, neighbors.

Buckner, since he was sworn in as police chief in June 2014, has repeatedly linked crime in Little Rock to social and economic factors including unemployment, poverty, mental illness and substance abuse. Buckner has also said black people are disproportionately affected by crime.

That was the case in 2016, at least for shootings and homicides, according to police data.

Thirty-two of the 42 people killed in Little Rock last year were black. More than 88 percent of those injured by gunfire in Little Rock last year were black, according to police data.

“When we show [a] robbery suspect jumping over counter, a person wanted for this hold up, [a] person wanted for this shooting — more often than not that’s a black male. There’s no question about that. But what’s rarely talked about is what the victims look like of these crimes, and more often than not they are African American,” Buckner said in an interview earlier this year.

Buckner said a high number of firearms available on the street has made it difficult for police to limit killings.

Thirty-seven of the 42 homicides in the city last year involved a gun, according to police reports.

As part of its crime-fighting effort, the Police Department in 2015 joined a U.S. Department of Justice program, the Violence Reduction Network, that aims to reduce violent crimes in participating cities by providing federal resources and training.

This year, in response to the increase in violent crime, the Police Department created a special unit to curb violent offenses.

Police had recorded 1,148 violent offenses as of May 1, a 21 percent increase compared with the 945 violent offenses logged through the same date last year.

As of Friday, there had been 21 homicides in the city, 11 more than police had investigated in the same time in 2016. That figure puts the city on pace for more than 61 homicides this year, the most since 1993.

Buckner is planning to host public meetings, beginning this month and continuing through June, in each of the city’s seven wards to discuss crime in Little Rock.

“We need people to continue to stay engaged,” he said. “We need their help.”

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