Request endorsed to add 10 officers for Capitol Police
A legislative panel on Tuesday endorsed Secretary of State John Thurston’s request for 10 more Capitol Police officer positions to provide what Thurston said would be much-needed security coverage at all times for the Capitol and its tenants, guests and visitors.
Thurston sought these new positions more than a month and a half after a series of nightly protests at the Capitol, after the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
Police in Little Rock used tear gas and chemical irritants to disperse crowds of protesters on several occasions, and on the night of June 2, dozens of demonstrators were arrested in the city and charged with obstructing governmental operations.
The damage to structures at and near the Capitol has been estimated at roughly $500,000, largely from a fire at a building.
After 30 minutes of discussion and in a voice vote with no audible dissenters, the Legislative Council’s personnel subcommittee recommended the full council approve Thurston’s request for the new positions. The council is scheduled to meet Friday.
Thurston said in a letter to
the subcommittee’s co-chairmen, Rep. Jim Wooten, R-Beebe, and Sen. David Wallace, R-Leachville, that he sought eight more corporal positions with maximum-authorized salaries of $58,493 a year and two more sergeant positions with maximum-authorized salaries of $65,265.
Afterward, Thurston spokesman Chris Powell said, “We would be looking at an entry rate of $45,000 for a corporal and $55,000 for a sergeant.”
Thurston said the annual estimated cost of these new positions, including benefits, is $770,718, and his office will ask for additional spending authority for the posts at a future meeting of the Legislative Council’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Subcommittee.
CAPITOL POLICE DUTIES
Capitol Police Chief Darrell Hedden said the force has 16 corporals, three sergeants, two dispatchers, a captain and himself.
They are responsible for providing safety and security for tenants, guests and visitors in the Capitol, the nearby Capitol Hill building and the surrounding grounds 24 hours a day, seven days week a, Thurston said.
“The ability to schedule sufficient staffing for security at all State Capitol events and ongoing activities, especially during the past few months, has been extremely difficult, resulting in considerable overtime hours and officer fatigue,” he wrote in his letter.
Wooten said the secretary of state’s office used 900 hours of overtime for its officers.
“It became very apparent at that time that the Capitol Police themselves were not adequately staffed to be able to deal with those circumstances that are apparently becoming more familiar in today’s society,” he said.
Hedden told lawmakers that “this is turning into an every weekend thing.
“There were about 10 of us here Saturday for about seven hours, so that’s another 70 hours on top of everything else,” he said.
The additional officers would be the first increase in the force in about 15 years, Thurston said in his letter.
Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, asked Hedden whether new officers would get any more training to handle these unique circumstances.
Hedden said the state Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training requires all law enforcement officers to have at least 20 hours of training each year.
“We are going to set up the training for all of us to go through the riot-control, the crowd-control training that we think we need going forward,” he said.
“We are in the process of trying to purchase the equipment to where we could have a team per se set up to be able to respond to large events, things of that nature … and handle a situation like that,” Hedden said.
Kurt Naumann, director of administration in the secretary of state’s office, said, “We are looking at the chief’s additional needs that he will have and we anticipate a pretty thorough analysis of what those needs are going to be and we’ll likely be entailing that in our biennial budget coming up, if the funds are not available from our existing budget.”
PROTESTS VERSUS RIOTS
Rep. Tippi McCullough, D-Little Rock, said a subcommittee member, Rep. Deborah Ferguson, D-West Memphis, who was watching the meeting online, wants to know how Hedden distinguishes between a riot and a peaceful protest.
“A peaceful protest is just that to me, is a peaceful protest. People can raise their voice, yell and scream and whatever,” Hedden said. “Burning buildings, busting windows, beating people over the head with sticks, things of that nature, is to me a riotous behavior.”
“In my personal opinion, I have been to hundreds of rallies and protests and the last several that I have been to here on the Capitol grounds to me is all of them have been a riot because of the criminal behavior that’s involved in it,” he said.
Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers, said legislators have been having more meetings with controversial subjects.
“Times have changed and I do think that your asking for more employees in this particular area is a good thing,” she said.
Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, told Hedden, “‘I do thank you for the work that you do.
“I am concerned that always when we militarize police, because this is the people’s house,” she said. “I don’t want us to engage in any activity that will say to the people, ‘You are not welcome because your point of view is different from my point of view.’
“We do have hyperpartisanship that I find very, very troubling in this day and time. But I would ask that we continue to remember that just because we differ, because we even look different, that we will be treated with the same respect regardless of it,” Chesterfield said.
She said she supports Thurston’s request for 10 new state Capitol Police positions because “I know you are overworked.
“But at the same time, I would ask that we all remember that this is not just some people’s house, this is all of the people’s house and that we treat everyone who comes here with the dignity and respect that they’re due,” Chesterfield said.
Hedden said, “Senator, our intention to be welcoming to anybody.
“We always have been as best as I can recall,” he said. “We have no intention to militarize the state Capitol force. But in saying that, I believe that we need to be adequately prepared to respond to very, very violent situations and we have had several of them in the recent couple of months. I think we have to have certain equipment not only to protect the people that come here, but our officers’ lives as well.”
“I have never in my 28 years as a state Capitol Police officer been involved in so many criminal investigations … [and] so much intelligence gathering,” he said. “I have to try to stay one step ahead of even the protesters.”
The Capitol Police has increased only by four officers since 1992, Hedden said.
“I wished we could go back to the days of Andy Griffith, where we wouldn’t have to carry a gun,” he said. “But I think those days are past.”