Little Rock Police Chief Keith Humphrey sought to have a critic of the Police Department charged with stalking or harassment in late March, according to email records.
When prosecutors with the 6th Judicial Circuit declined to charge Russ Racop, a local blogger and vocal critic of the department and city officials, Humphrey expressed frustration to colleagues in the Police Department, emails show.
"I totally disagree. But this doesn't surprise me. This seems to be a constant with our Prosecuting Attorney," Humphrey wrote in an email April 1.
Emails obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette under the state open-records law show that on the afternoon of March 30, Humphrey wrote to colleagues in the Police Department to inform them that Racop had been livestreaming on Facebook outside the residences of city leaders, including the mayor and city manager.
Humphrey argued that Racop's actions fell under the state's harassment statute.
"Please reach out to see if the Prosecuting Attorney will take this charge," Humphrey wrote. "Or, if he refuses to accept the charges see [if] the u s [sic] attorney will take the charges."
The police chief added that he had been made aware of Racop's actions via citizens.
"I am curious as to why I wasn't informed that the mayor, city manager and my residences were being streamed live on facebook," he wrote.
Little Rock police Capt. Russell King replied, saying he would have his team compile something to submit to the prosecutor for review, and Humphrey thanked him.
The next day, according to emails, Humphrey wrote back to ask if a charge of stalking "would be an option." King told him that because a stalking charge requires a terroristic threat or fear of safety on the part of the victim, these required elements "may preclude this charge as viable; however, we don't yet have enough information to make an informed decision."
On April 1, Little Rock police Sgt. Brittany Gunn wrote that she had provided the videos that morning to deputy prosecutor Jill Kamps, who reviewed them with Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley and Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Johnson.
"Jill advised they were all in agreeance [sic] that Mr. Racops' actions are, unfortunately, not criminal," Gunn wrote.
Johnson said Thursday that the prosecuting attorney's office could not comment on internal discussions pertaining to potential criminal offenses. He also said prosecutors had no comment when asked about Humphrey's criticism.
"We're not going to respond to something that he didn't say directly to us," Johnson said. "I mean, that's not fair to him or anybody else."
Arkansas law defines stalking in the third degree as when a person "knowingly commits an act that would place a reasonable person in the victim's position under emotional distress and in fear for his or her safety or a third person's safety."
Second-degree stalking is defined as "a course of conduct that harasses another person and makes a terroristic threat with the purpose of placing that person in imminent fear of death or serious bodily injury or placing that person in imminent fear of the death or serious bodily injury of his or her immediate family."
The state law defining harassment encompasses broader categories of behavior.
Arkansas law defines harassment as when a person "with purpose to harass, annoy, or alarm another person, without good cause" subjects them to offensive physical contact or threatens to do so; makes an obscene gesture or uses obscene language "in a manner likely to provoke a violent or disorderly response"; follows someone in a public place; repeatedly insults or taunts someone in a public place; commits an act "that alarms or seriously annoys another person and that serves no legitimate purpose"; or "places a person under surveillance by remaining present outside that person's school, place of employment, vehicle, other place occupied by that person, or residence, other than the residence of the defendant, for no purpose other than to harass, alarm, or annoy."
When asked for comment about his push to have Racop charged, Humphrey pointed out the language contained in the harassment statute, which refers to repeated insults, acts that alarm or seriously annoy, and surveillance.
In an emailed statement to the Democrat-Gazette on Friday, Humphrey wrote: "It was very clear that Mr. Racop violated and continues to violate the highlighted components of the statute. The Prosecuting attorney made the decision not to accept the charges. Which is within the purview of his job. I also have the right to disagree with that decision."
Humphrey went on, "However, I believe that when a person continuously follows and places any individual under surveillance with the intent to annoy or to place a person or their family in danger it is no longer a first amendment right."
The police chief said this was not the first time Racop's actions were discussed with the prosecuting attorney's office.
"As long as he continues to violate the law we will continue to present charges to the prosecuting attorney's office," Humphrey wrote.
In an interview Friday, Racop said, "I may push the limits, but I'm not going to break the law."
He acknowledged filming outside the homes of city officials March 30. A day after Humphrey's email asking for charges, on March 31, Racop published a post on his blog, "Bad City of Little Rock," with photos of City Manager Bruce Moore's car apparently parked in his yard in violation of a city ordinance.
Racop said he was not contacted by anyone from the prosecuting attorney's office.
"They're not going to contact me because they know that I'm not going to violate the law," Racop said.
In his March 30 email, Humphrey alleged that Racop was filming "closeups of open windows," which Racop denied.
"I don't believe I ever even got out of my vehicle," Racop said.
According to the internal Police Department emails, shortly after Humphrey voiced his disagreement with the prosecuting attorney's decision, Gunn replied with links to two articles in The Oregonian about a so-called cop watcher who followed Portland's then-chief of police while filming.
The police chief at the time, Danielle Outlaw, in 2017 obtained an indefinite stalking protective order against Eli Richey. Outlaw said she was intimidated by Richey filming her walking to her office and to her car in a parking garage while she was on and off duty, the newspaper reported.
The Oregon Court of Appeals threw out the order two years later in a ruling that said Richey's actions did not show threats of violence and were not sufficient to provoke a reasonable feeling of alarm, The Oregonian reported.
Information for this article was contributed by Rachel Herzog of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 06/01/2020