Departments use mutual aid to support each other
WESTSIDE — With the growing crime rates and civil unrest sweeping the nation in the last year, coupled with the worldwide outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic, police departments are sometimes stretched to their limits as far as having enough officers out on patrol, especially in small towns like Decatur, Highfill and Sulphur Springs. In order to keep the citizens of these towns safe and secure, area law enforcement agencies make use of mutual aid, an agreement to help each other in times of serious need.
Law enforcement agencies from Gravette, Decatur, Gentry, Highfill, Centerton, Sulphur Springs, Little Flock, Cave Springs, Pea Ridge, Lowell and the Benton County Sheriff’s Office entered into a mutual aid agreement that allows other departments to help when officer resources are stretched to the limit.
What this means for residents of each of these communities is that, should its department have a potentially dangerous incident, it can call on other lawenforcement agencies to come and bring additional officers and resources to assist with the incident.
Decatur Police Chief Steven Grizzle tries to send at least two officers on every call depending on how many calls there might be in Decatur at any given time. This is not always possible, especially in a department that has only six full- and six part-time officers spread over a 24 hour/ seven day a week period.
“These guys are our lifelines; they are the ones that are first to come and help us,” Grizzle said. “In the last two weeks (before Jan. 6) the officers from Gravette and Gentry have been here multiple times, especially when we had multiple arrests. We needed the extra law enforcement officers to help us out. That being said, they have saved my department by making sure my officers are covered. If we have someone that we need to take to jail, our city is not covered at the time. These agencies help to cover our city or even take in the suspect when needed. Mutual aid is a great tool and I can’t talk enough about these police chiefs and their departments.”
More than just answering calls for assistance in a crisis situation or help with an accident scene, mutual aid expands into the need to cover events. With the mutual aid agreement, area agencies can call for help when the need to cover special events arises. Gentry Police Chief Clay Stewart sees it as a way to keep the citizens and schools safe during these events.
“On scheduled events like the Fourth of July or the Decatur Barbecue or the first day of school, I have 10 full-time guys and two part-time guys and I may have two or three guys on duty at any given time,” Chief Stewart explained. “The first day of school, he (Grizzle) may bring two guys over and now we went from four officers to six and my taxpayers don’t have to pay any more for that. The mutual aid works both ways up and down Arkansas 59 (highway).”
One very important aspect of mutual aid lies in training. For Chief Chuck Skaggs with the Gravette Police Department, training together can form bonds between officers but, more importantly, each officer from the different departments knows just what the others are capable of.
“We all work together and train together,” Chief Skaggs explained. “We have our training officer meet regularly to come up with training plans that all of our departments can work with. That’s big for every department. If we have a tactical situation, these guys know how the others react. Mutual aid is more than helping each other out but that we train together to give us a better working knowledge of every department we cover.”
Gentry’s Chief Stewart echoes Chief Skaggs’ sentiments when it comes to the training aspect of mutual aid.
“When you train with other agencies, you know what they expect of each other and what you are going to do,” said Chief Stewart. “We train on clearing hallways, rooms and buildings together so we know what the guy in front and the guy beside us are going to do so there are no surprises and that we aren’t going into a situation blind. To me, this is more important than the call for mutual aid.”
Highfill Police Chief Blake Webb sees these different departments working together as a way to share resources, especially for small departments like Highfill, Decatur and Sulphur Springs.
“To me, mutual aid is the glue that holds everything together as far as giving each of our respective departments a better opportunity to provide better service to the communities,” Chief Webb said. “Chuck (Chief Skaggs-Gravette) might have somebody that specializes in drug recognition that can help me with a situation in Highfill, or Steve (Chief Grizzle-Decatur) may have someone that is good at writing search warrants. They might need to come and help me with something in that area. Pooling our resources together and utilizing the resources to benefit everybody is what it boils down to. Citizen safety, officer safety is number one but there are a lot of underlining concepts that we benefit from is a huge part of that.”
The Benton County Sheriffs Office in Bentonville is a vital part of the mutual aid agreement. But with the department’s resources stretched over 847 square miles of land and 37 square miles of water, it’s hard for them to get to a call in Decatur, Gravette or Highfill within a few minutes.
“Whenever we have a big event that requires multiple law enforcement officers, the closest ones are either eight miles one way or six miles to the other,” Chief Stewart said. “Sure there are Benton County Deputies out there but they may be halfway across the county. They may have a 15 or 20 minute response time, whereas (Chief) Grizzle could be there in four minutes.”
Chief Grizzle recounted an incident that occurred in Decatur on Jan. 2 when the Benton County officers were out on multiple calls and could not respond at the time. But four area agencies were in Decatur within minutes and helped him resolve the situation quickly and safely.
“We had some issues that required help from Gentry and Gravette and Centerton,” Chief Grizzle explains. “Centerton responded when we had these big issues here in Decatur. And if Centerton calls for us, we go and help them. We had to go up there and help them on domestic disputes before when the county was too busy to respond because they were working cases across Benton County.”
Another recent example of mutual aid came in the form of a call to 911 during an event in Gravette which required several local agencies working together. One of the responding officers was Decatur police chief Steven Grizzle.
“On Saturday, the 9th of January, Gravette Police Department received information that there was going to be a possible protest in the city of Gravette.” Chief Grizzle related. “Not knowing how many protesters to expect or the demeanor of the protesters, Gravette Police Department reached out and requested officers from local departments (Decatur, Gentry, Sulphur Springs, Highfill, Centerton and Benton County) to assist with any issues or crowd control if needed. There was a very good response from all the area agencies. Once it was clear that officers were not needed, they were released and each department is very much appreciated for their assistance.”
Mutual aid between area law enforcement is important for the protection of businesses, homes, and the many thousands of citizens residing in the extreme Northwest Arkansas region and is another example of how our local law enforcement agencies work together for our benefit.