POLICE WORK not the same in snow conditions.
Crime falls with temperature, they say
Police work when there is a foot of snow on the ground is not exactly the same as it is on a typical day.
For one thing, it can be busier. And for another, it can share a lot in common with a tow truck driver’s job.
In the wake of the record snowfall this week, law enforcement officers have had their hands full keeping the highways safe and flowing smoothly as Central Arkansas drivers have battled weather conditions they aren’t used to dealing with.
North Little Rock Police Officer Anthony Strout patrols in the downtown zone for North Little Rock. He said that the call volume has stayed consistent, but there have been more calls for weather- and temperature-related issues.
“We’ve had a few people call in and ask for police to help them get out of the road,” Strout said Wednesday. “[Monday], the snow was bad, and I was working up on [JFK] Boulevard. And
I moved maybe … 10 cars out of the road. And I got three or four calls for that, but, once they see the lights and they stop in the places we’re helping them, more people get stuck.”
Little Rock Police spokesman officer Eric Barnes said departments do get plenty of calls when there is snowy weather.
“Historically, working in the snow and stuff like that, you’re going to have those calls,” Barnes said.
Fortunately, the weather can cut police some slack on the crime calls. Little Rock Police Lt. Casey Clark said, in past snow events like this one, crime calls tended to drop off because everyone is trying to stay warm.
“Typically there is less crime because everybody is doing the best they can to stay warm and survive the power outages,” Clark said.
Strout, who is originally from New Hampshire, said the kind of weather the area is dealing with now, and the assistance the police are giving them, is just like up north.
“This would be just like a normal day,” Strout said. “You’d be helping people. There’d be a little less people stuck because the plow trucks come through, [and] the salt truck comes through.”
For drivers who brave the snow, behaviors that under normal circumstances may be traffic violations are being overlooked if the driver is acting safely, according to Strout.
As long as motorists are staying on their side of the road, police have been cutting them some slack for not staying perfectly in their lanes, Strout said.
“They drive in the middle [of two lanes] because it’s safer to drive in the middle,” Strout said. “It’s kind of like driving on a dirt road, especially in the snow because there’s a lot of tracks there. And its hard to see where the actual lane is. But they’re still keeping the north and southbound or east and westbound integrity.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Strout helped several people having vehicle issues, even pushing one up an incline into a parking lot.
The patrol officers, according to Strout, have also been driving dispatchers, hospital workers and those who need shelter to their destinations.
Strout said the kinds of vehicles the North Little Rock department has been able to put on the street is limited because of the snow. Some of the new, larger Chevrolet Tahoes the department has have been sidelined for vehicles with four-wheel-drive such as the Ford Explorers or Strout’s 2017 Ford Taurus.
“Some of the rear-wheeldrive Tahoes, they put studded snow [tires] on them,” Strout said.
Little Rock police officers have prioritized attaching gear to their rear wheel vehicles, according to Barnes.
“Some of our vehicles, especially some of the Chargers that are rear wheel drive, they’ve been equipped with studded tires,” Barnes said. “What we’ve gone to is the studded tires. You may see some with chains, but chains have restrictions on speed so that limits what we can do.”
Pulaski County sheriff’s deputies have also switched to winter-ready tires last week as the storms approached, according to spokesman Lt. Robert Garrett.
“Prior to the winter storm coming, [the vehicles] are called in to get snow tires changed,” Garrett said. “I think we use beaded tires. And they get the tires changed and roll on.”
Garrett added that the last time this much snow fell in Central Arkansas was about eight years ago when he was a patrol supervisor, and he said he had no problems driving his Dodge Charger.