Police agency explains plan for overtime

45 officers a day, each add 4 hours to one shift a week

Little Rock police provided new details Thursday on a plan to increase patrols in high-crime areas by requiring officers to work overtime.

The Police Department said selected officers, beginning today, will each work an additional four hours on one shift per week. Police spokesman Lt. Steve McClanahan said four hours per week is the maximum amount of overtime required under the plan, which will continue indefinitely.

Forty-five officers per day — 15 each from the department’s downtown, northwest and southwest patrol divisions — will work the extended shifts. McClanahan said the shifts will cover “peak times” for criminal activity, which include overnight hours, but he declined to provide specifics.

“We decided it wasn’t in our best interest to say exactly what those hours would be,” he said.

The department’s major crimes and special investigations divisions, which include homicide detectives and undercover officers, are

exempt from the plan.

Detectives in the property crimes division are not exempt. They’ll hit the streets with patrol officers.

“The emphasis is clearly on violent crimes,” McClanahan said.

Police Chief Kenton Buckner ordered the overtime detail as part of a broader effort to stop an increase this year in shootings, homicides and other violent crimes in the city.

The department logged 2,094 violent crimes through Aug. 7, a 19 percent increase compared with the same period last year, according to preliminary police data. As of Thursday evening, the city had 43 homicides this year, one more than recorded in all of 2016.

Last month, after 28 people were injured in a shooting at a downtown nightclub, the Police Department joined a task force of state, local and federal authorities that targets gangs and violent criminals. Also, Buckner loosened restrictions on police vehicular pursuits and created a special unit dedicated to arresting violent criminals.

The department’s latest tactic, targeted patrols, isn’t new.

For years, Little Rock police have moved resources to tackle hot spots of criminal activity around the city.

But for just as long, the department has been short-handed. It’s authorized to have 590 sworn officers and currently has nearly 80 vacancies.

Buckner said keeping officers on the streets for longer periods of time could make the targeted patrols more effective.

McClanahan said “problem areas” being considered for the heightened patrols include the West 12th Street corridor, where police have reported dozens of aggravated assaults this year, and areas of South Harrison Street and Peyton Street, where officers have investigated gang-related shootings.

Arkansas State Police, at the request of Little Rock police, have increased patrols in parts of the city. State police spokesman Bill Sadler said troopers have made numerous traffic stops and arrests this week along Asher Avenue, particularly at Roosevelt Road and South University Avenue.

McClanahan said patrol-target areas will be re-evaluated each week.

“We’re hoping we can be pretty productive and efficient with this,” he said.