Incidents of road rage in which guns have been brandished or fired at drivers have become increasingly common this year on Arkansas roads, with reports coming in almost daily in the past few months, the Arkansas State Police director said.
As of Wednesday, state police were working 26 active cases involving shots fired by drivers or passengers in 2021, Col. Bill Bryant said. Twenty of these cases are in Company A's area -- comprising Pulaski, Saline, Faulkner and other counties in central and eastern Arkansas -- and two of them resulted in deaths.
In addition to the killings, troopers have been fired at during three pursuits so far this year, Bryant said, often with significant firepower.
In one incident in Conway, a fleeing suspect shot at troopers with an SKS, a semi-automatic that fires the same cartridge as AK-47 assault rifles. In another pursuit in Little Rock, the suspect used a pistol with a 50-round drum magazine to fire on troopers, Bryant said.
Even if no shots are fired, reports of drivers or passengers threatening others with firearms in traffic have been flooding in, he said.
"We see that two or three times a day here in the Troop A area," Bryant said. Troop A covers Pulaski, Saline, Faulkner and Lonoke counties.
"It's by far the worst I've seen," said Bryant, who came to the state in 1991.
Wednesday, Bryant spoke before state legislators of the Game and Fish and State Police Subcommittee on the growing lawlessness on the roads, also pointing out that yearly incidents of aggravated driving over 100 mph have nearly doubled since 2019.
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In 2019, troopers responded to 1,062 such incidents, but that number has risen to 2,026 in 2020 and 2,014 as of Oct. 30, 2021, according to Arkansas State Police data prepared for the legislative hearing.
"Nobody has a real silver bullet answer" to the cause of this increase in violence and aggressive driving, Bryant said.
Some people have suggested that the increased crime rates stem from heightened stress during the covid-19 pandemic, or maybe a general "sense of lawlessness," Bryant said.
Whatever the reason, these trends are not unique to Arkansas, Bryant said. Law enforcement agencies in other states are seeming similar instances of crime spikes, he noted.
While no specific initiatives have been put in place to prevent these road rage shootings, the agency has turned largely to low-profile vehicles for crime reduction, hoping to increase the odds of catching lawbreakers in the act.
"Low-profile vehicles help us blend in with traffic to enforce traffic laws," Bryant said.
The Arkansas State Police this year purchased 25 black Chevrolet Tahoes, marked with smaller state police emblems than the standard white-and-blue patrol vehicles. These vehicles hit the roads in the latter part of September.
The practice of using low-profile vehicles started in 1999, Bryant told legislators Wednesday, but the high-riding Tahoes offer troopers a better view into other cars on the road, helping them crack down on distracted driving in particular.
Bryant urged Arkansas drivers to be more considerate in their driving, avoiding confrontational reactions such as certain hand gestures.
"Everybody needs to be patient and tolerant," Bryant said.