Chief announces 9 task force members

Panel to review recommendations made after audit of LR police force

Little Rock Police Chief Keith Humphrey on Tuesday named nine people to an internal task force that will assess the 80 recommendations made by an independent audit of the police force released last week.

The department has not had an audit in years, Humphrey said, so “this is really a good thing for our department.”

Humphrey did not lay out a timetable for the review but noted that the group included members of the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police and the Little Rock Black Police Officers Associations, the leading police unions.

Maj. Heath Helton, who heads up the Records and Support Division, will lead the panel, Humphrey said.

The other members are lieutenants J.C. White and Michael Ford; sergeants Jerrod Purifoy and Tabitha Gurley; detective Erik Temple; and officers Lisa Nava, Katina Harley and Tim Pope.

White is with the Training Division and is on the executive board of the Black Police Officers Associations. Ford is with the department’s Freedom of Information Act unit. Purifoy works with the department’s accreditation unit. Gurley is a training sergeant. Temple is on the executive committee of the Fraternal Order of Police.

Adding three patrol officers to the review panel will help provide insight and community knowledge, Humphrey said.

Humphrey concluded the news conference by reiterating the department’s commitment to reducing violent crime, citing its partnership with the Drug Enforcement Agency and pointing to three raids Oct. 25 that confiscated 47 pounds of meth and multiple firearms.

As of Tuesday afternoon, police have seized 645 illegal firearms and arrested 437 people related to those weapons, Humphrey said.