We all have been touched by violent crime in Little Rock. Crime affects more than just an individual or a victim's family. It impacts more than just a specific ZIP code or neighborhood. It affects our entire city.
It is difficult to attract new business to Little Rock when our community is consistently listed as one of the most dangerous cities in the United States year after year. And with 2017 being one of the most violent years in recent history, a new spotlight has been cast on turmoil within our police department, the re-emergence of violent gangs, and growing distrust between law enforcement and Little Rock's communities of color.
For Little Rock to be the best version of itself, we deserve city leadership that understands it is impossible for a city to thrive when residents do not feel safe in their homes or on our streets.
What that looks like is an administration that is just as committed to prosecuting the most violent elements of our city as they are to real community policing. The next mayor must be willing to work with Little Rock Police Department's senior leadership to ensure that we don't have longstanding vacancies in the department again.
In turn, city leadership must also establish partnerships with institutions like Philander Smith College, Arkansas Baptist College, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and Little Rock public schools to recruit a police force as diverse as the city it serves.
Little Rock also deserves a mayor that will put forth a vision for the city to tackle issues like poverty and truancy and that will work to ensure citizens have a voice in holding our officers accountable to the communities they serve.
As a proud son of Little Rock, I am exploring a run for mayor because I believe our city is better than what the gloomy statistics and headlines would have us believe. Reducing crime would be a top priority of a Scott administration. We need leadership that is just as focused on working with federal prosecutors to put violent offenders away as they are in offering non-violent offenders a chance to make an honest living by equipping them with the necessary skills to be productive members of our labor force.
In an effort to build community trust, Little Rock must re-establish its cadet program to recruit the next generation of officers and provide more incentives for officers to live in the neighborhoods they serve. And we must promote and elevate the law enforcement profession by creating a clear career ladder to retain and reward our most experienced officers.
I am exploring a run for mayor because I have grown tired of the hapless patrol-and-control approach to community policing we've seen that has only fueled mistrust between law enforcement and Little Rock residents. We must rethink the notion of community policing in a way that replaces skepticism with genuine trust in heavily policed neighborhoods.
As an associate pastor in Little Rock, I see firsthand the price our communities pay when our leadership fails to keep our communities safe. I understand the impact violent crime has on the identity of a community and have participated in too many funerals. Enough is enough. Little Rock deserves a city leadership that will coordinate efforts between City Hall, Little Rock Public Schools, and our faith community to intervene in the lives of our youth before we lose them to the streets.
While the current mayor promoted LR for Life to disrupt violence, I have yet to find a citizen of Little Rock who feels like the community is any safer since he released his plan last July. And while recent efforts to fill police vacancies are a step in the right direction, the current administration's sense of urgency in staffing LRPD only occurred in reaction to a crime wave. Our community deserves a mayor that is willing to lead on tackling crime, rather than simply responding to it.
I believe that our best days are ahead of us, but we must exhibit a sense of urgency. Now is the time to remove our most violent elements from our streets and fully commit to rebuilding trust in every community.
Reducing crime will take real leadership and a holistic approach to get there. But the Little Rock I know and love is worth fighting for.
Frank Scott Jr. is a former state highway commissioner exploring a run for Little Rock mayor.
Editorial on 04/08/2018