US attorney touts children’s program
Conner Eldridge, U. S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, said Thursday it would be good if all 75 counties in the state implemented a new program he started to help mitigate the impact that drugs and violence have on school children.
Eldridge, who announced earlier this week that he would step down as U. S. attorney effective Aug. 21, addressed the 48th annual Arkansas Association of Chiefs of Police convention Thursday at the Hot Springs Convention Center.
Eldridge’s program, A- Chance, which stands for Arkansas Cultivating Healthy Attitudes and Nurturing Children to Excel, allows police officers who have investigated a domestic dispute involving a child to send a short information form to the child’s school district. The information initially goes to the district’s superintendent’s office, which in turn notifies the school’s principal, who then passes that information along to the student’s teacher and counselor.
The information given to the schools would not provide specific details, but alert them to the
fact that the police had been involved and they may decide to “cut that kid a break,” Eldridge said.
“National statistics say 61 percent of kids in America are exposed to violence, crime or abuse in a year. I don’t have the statistics for Arkansas, but I would suspect if that is the national statistic, in Arkansas we are at the same,” Eldridge said.
“We have a lot of problems that we won’t fix tomorrow, but we need to try to fix all of them. The program we’ve introduced is simple and doesn’t add a whole lot ( of work) to you or the schools. I think it will make a huge difference in kids’ lives,” he said.
Eldridge said the notice will provide some professional help that the child would not otherwise receive, and hopefully some of those children would not end up in alternative school, or juvenile court. The ultimate goal is to avoid having the child ending up in district court, circuit court or the Arkansas Department of Correction.
He said 13 police departments in Arkansas are already participating in the program to try to become involved in the lives of children “who have been exposed to drugs, are in really bad homes, and try to reach them to stop the cycle of violence from repeating.”
Eldridge told the police chiefs that he had been fortunate to work with them in doing his job.
“And that’s important. We see things in the news from across the country all the time about situations that erupt in other places where there is real tension between the community and law enforcement, and those are very problematic. I hear stories from my fellow U. S. attorneys, from Baltimore to wherever, and I think we’re really fortunate in Arkansas because of the way we grow up here, the kinds of communities we have and the work you and we do together. We’re fortunate not to have as many of those problems,” he said.
Eldridge said law enforcement officials can get mired in the work of investigating cases and the minutiae that can make or break a case, or filling out reports that take up a big part of a police officer’s day, and it bears recognizing that what they are truly about is doing the right thing and being mindful of the power that is inherent in police departments and prosecuting attorneys’ offices across the state.
“I’m proud of what we’ve done together in our office and with so many of you to work on our priorities in the four and a half years I’ve been in this office. I think we’ve used that power in the right way. I think our job is to work together with federal prosecutors, state prosecutors, police departments, sheriff’s offices and federal law enforcement agencies,” he said.
He said the No. 1 problem, and a priority that his office has worked with police to combat, is drug trafficking and the violence and associated crime that goes with it.
“That impacts economic development, folk’s jobs and the whole community. I’ve heard from most of you that the No. 1 problem is methamphetamines and close behind that is prescription drugs. Related to prescription drugs is heroin, which we’re seeing now, and cocaine.
“What we’ve done and what I want to encourage everyone to continue to do with the U. S. attorneys offices, Eastern and Western districts, is to bring together folks to figure out how to deal with the heart of the problem, not just arrest the guy on the street,” he said.
Eldridge said building large- scale investigations, teaming up with federal “buy” money, federal agents and wire taps, and then work with local officers who know their communities, has worked everywhere in his district.
“I would encourage you to continue that work. We can do wire taps and you know what a tool those are and you can get into a network with a wire tap. That and basic buying and working up the chain is what it takes to trace drugs back to where they come from,” he said.
“I think we’re fortunate in Arkansas to have had really great relationships, and it has been a privilege and an honor to get to work with so many of you in this room,” he said.