After an hours-long Little Rock Board of Directors meeting Tuesday where officials were at odds over the need to call on state resources to tackle gun crime in the city, officials and community activists remain divided on what steps need to be taken to stop the shootings that have been declared a public health emergency in the city.
Some think that additional personnel or resources from Arkansas State Police or even the Arkansas National Guard would help put fearful citizens at ease while also relieving Little Rock Police, who they view as overstretched. Others dismissed the notions as unhelpful knee-jerk reactions that would just lead to overly strict enforcement.
After four days of shootings that killed one person and injured 11 more, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott called for an emergency declaration Tuesday because of the violence.
The resolution eventually passed by the board -- over one 'no' vote -- called for a "holistic approach" that emphasized support for grassroots violence-prevention programs while lifting for 30 days financial limits on Little Rock police overtime and directing the department's officers to increase patrols in parts of the city considered especially violent.
Although Chief Keith Humphrey told board members that citizens should not be afraid of going out at night or in certain areas of the city, Director Dean Kumpuris and others pushed back on that, citing frightened statements made by their constituents.
"I can promise you, the people I talk to don't feel safe going out at night," Kumpuris said.
Kumpuris asked Humphrey whether he intended to call on Arkansas State Police or even the National Guard for help in addressing crime in the city, comparing the city's police to hospital workers during the covid-19 pandemic, calling them "dedicated people doing more work than they should have to do."
Humphrey stressed that the city's officers work with State Police troopers almost every day but did not say he had asked for any assistance from the agency.
"We already have all of the resources we need in place," Humphrey had said in a Jan. 31 news conference addressing the recent shootings.
Scott also reminded board members that any deployment of the National Guard could only happen at Gov. Asa Hutchinson's direction, and did not give any indication that he would request that sort of aid.
Little Rock Police spokesman Mark Edwards said Thursday that National Guard involvement was off the table, and echoed Humphrey's remarks that additional State Police manpower was not needed.
"You can bring in all the state help you want," Edwards said, but it won't address the root causes leading some youth in the city to shoot at each other. The city's focus is on programs that keep teens out of violence and police work that gets guns off the streets, he said.
While emphasizing that the two law enforcement agencies work together practically every day, Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said that additional resources could be committed if requested.
"Many of the board members already know that there's a working relationship, but also realize that something on the scale of what Mayor Scott and Chief Humphrey are talking about will take more than day-to-day cooperation," Sadler said.
He stressed that while there has not been any request for help above and beyond the regular cooperation, that there would need to be a plan in place to make sure they weren't just throwing muscle at the problem.
"There has to be some specificity of what the mission is and what kind of resources are needed," Sadler said.
Sadler gave an example of troopers working with police in Helena-West Helena, where there were fears of retaliation in certain areas after a shooting in the city. As many as five or six troopers were deployed to patrol the problem areas at times when police intelligence suggested gun crime was most likely, he said.
On the other end of the spectrum, the most recent large partnership between Little Rock Police and State Police was in 2020, during the Black Lives Matter protests that led to some civil disturbances, Sadler said. He acknowledged that responding to more centralized incidents that stemmed from the protests over a week or two was very different from open-ended patrols in neighborhoods that may go on for some time.
Kathy Wells, president of the Coalition of Little Rock Neighborhoods, sees "no meaningful value" to calling in additional personnel from the Arkansas State Police, and particularly not the National Guard, to patrol the streets and work on crime prevention.
"That is just not what the Guard is told to do or trained to do," Wells said.
Wells generally agrees with Humphrey's characterization of the violence in the city, that it stems from teens who have "too much access to automatic weapons and too little connection to their community," she said.
The best way to combat that type of problem is the community anti-violence programs that Wells and her organization have supported since the city introduced them in 1993, she said.
The city's programs have been proven effective in reducing violent crime, Edwards said, but the covid-19 pandemic has led to closures and less activities to prevent idle teens from getting involved in crime or disagreements that lead to the type of retaliatory bloodshed the city has seen.
The problem is complicated, acknowledged Benny Johnson, founder of Arkansas Stop the Violence, who said that while he is still a believer in community programs that offer a better life for teens and their parents or guardians in the city, he would like to see Humphrey accept more help from other agencies.
"[There's] nothing wrong with him asking for outside help," Johnson said.
Johnson thinks the city would benefit from a more robust state task force to get illegal guns off the streets, and thinks that State Police or Pulaski County deputies could be an important part of that.
Little Rock Police officers do serve on task forces with federal partners from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI.
Still, Johnson had concerns about over-policing and the potential for racial profiling in the name of stopping the gun violence that has citizens fearful. He expressed a desire for the agencies to strike a balance in their efforts.
"You can't have policing where you patrol and control," Johnson said, and still expect citizens in high-crime areas to want to work with law enforcement.
The emergency declaration resolution passed Tuesday noted that gun violence had a greater effect on Black males, with that group making up 72% of the city's homicide victims in 2021 and 100% of the victims on the six homicides reported so far in 2022. It did not make any direct statements about the potential for racial profiling by police in communities made up largely of people of color.
Johnson expressed frustration with some members of the city's board, saying that, with the exceptions of Vice Mayor Lance Hines and Director Ken Richardson, every one of them "has turned a deaf ear" to his warnings that violence was on the rise.
Hines drew criticism for dismissing the city's violence prevention programs as ineffectual "hug-a-thug" efforts that have "never worked" in Tuesday's meeting. Hines was the lone 'no' vote on the resolution that labeled gun violence a public health emergency.
He pointed out that the city has put money toward programs like these for decades now and that Tuesday's resolution felt like trying the same flawed method all over again.
Hines also suggested the city needs "a little bit of a police state to get control of our streets in the short-term until we can get all these programs rolled out."
On Twitter the next day, Hines apologized for using "an offensive and inappropriate description" of the initiatives. He walked back his indictment of the programs, saying he definitely thinks they are the long-term solution to the ongoing violence.
In response to calls requesting comment for this article, Hines texted that he was on vacation out of the country and would reply today.
Richardson, who is often at odds with Hines, apologized "to the families and the participants in our programs for them being called thugs during a public meeting" on Hines' behalf.
While Johnson said he did not share Hines' opinion, he thinks the vice mayor has genuine dedication to fixing the problem.
"I can understand he's very frustrated, and he's sincere about it," Johnson said.
Johnson was dismayed that the city was only now taking public steps to label the violence as a public health issue. This echoed Kumpuris' questions on Tuesday about why the city was only now reacting after the recent shootings.
"Now you're acting like the world's coming to an end," Johnson said.
The problem with violence hasn't developed overnight, so it's unlikely that any one action will solve it overnight, either, Wells, the neighborhood activist, said.
"Quick solutions to this are a comforting illusion and a falsehood," Wells said.