Mayor apprised of loiter dispute

LITTLE ROCK — The prosecuting attorney for the Little Rock region said the Police Department’s issuance of loitering citations hamstrung prosecutions after the police chief reportedly told community members that prosecutors had failed to pursue citations related to street racing.

Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for the 6th Judicial District, told Mayor Frank Scott Jr. in a letter Wednesday that his office was unable to move forward with prosecutions of people connected to a July street-racing incident because they had not committed the crime, in accordance with the statute’s text.

Jegley was responding to statements Police Chief Keith Humphrey reportedly made at a recent community meeting, according to an email sent by the St. Charles Community Association earlier this week.

The email update said that during the Jan. 14 quarterly neighborhood meeting for the Northwest Patrol Division, Humphrey and Scott had addressed the issue of street racing after discussion of 2020 crime statistics.

The two officials “spent a lot of time during the meeting depicting it as a national problem and describing the difficulties they have experienced in identifying the participants and issuing citations that can be successfully prosecuted,” the association’s crime-watch coordinator, Heather Starnes, wrote in the email sent Monday to recipients of the association’s crime-watch update.

She added later, “The Chief put a significant portion of the blame for [the department’s] failure to stop these groups on the prosecutor’s failure to prosecute citations issued by the [department]. There seems to be a clear disconnect between the Mayor/Police Chief and the prosecutor’s office.”

In the letter to the mayor, Jegley wrote he had been forwarded a copy of the email update on Wednesday and was “disheartened” to read Humphrey’s statement.

“Make no mistake: My office did not ‘fail’ to prosecute — we refused because the law requires it,” Jegley wrote.

Jegley said Humphrey was referring to loitering citations issued the weekend of July 24.

The prosecuting attorney acknowledged his office “ultimately was forced to dismiss these cases because the individuals involved had not committed the crime of loitering, pursuant to the statute.”

Jegley quoted the text of the loitering law, which says a person commits the offense if he lingers in a public place or someone’s premises in a way that warrants concern for the safety of persons or property in the vicinity and if he refuses to identify himself to law enforcement officials and give “a reasonably credible account” of his presence.

“Because all of the people charged with loitering were in a public place and identified themselves to [police], this office could not in good faith prosecute them for loitering,” Jegley wrote.

The language of the loitering statute was explained to Humphrey and a colleague, Sgt. Andre Dyer, during an Oct. 27 meeting Jegley and chief deputy prosecuting attorney John Johnson attended, but at which Humphrey brought up the topic, according to Jegley’s account to the mayor.

Other policing strategies were discussed, and Jegley told Humphrey that his office would research the prosecution of the criminal trespassing statute to evaluate strategies, Jegley wrote.

Jegley wrote that his office remains available to police and “has endeavored to collaborate with all police agencies to ensure public safety.”

“There are many challenges that confront law enforcement and my office and as such I would never blame another agency if my staff or I came up short,” Jegley wrote. “It is disappointing to hear from a citizen that there appears to be a ‘disconnect’ between my office and the [Police Department].”

He added the resident “apparently reached that conclusion having just listened to a presentation by Chief Humphrey where blame was placed on my office for a local problem that is, by Chief Humphrey’s accounts, a nationwide problem.”

Jegley’s jurisdiction as prosecuting attorney encompasses Pulaski and Perry counties.

KLRT first reported the correspondence between Jegley and Scott.

When reached for comment by email Thursday, Police Department spokesman Mark Edwards said officials were working on a news release. The news release had not been issued as of Thursday evening.

Since last year, Little Rock officials and police have been acutely aware of frequent “caravanning” involving vehicles cruising together or gathering in parking lots to watch other drivers do “doughnuts” with their vehicles.

Scott recently attempted to tamp down on the practice for the second time with an executive order amending an earlier emergency declaration related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest order, which was signed in December, prohibits groups of five or more vehicles from traveling together in order for drivers to exit the cars for recreational purposes, or for purposes other than the essential activities of employment, grocery shopping or medical visits.

Additionally, the mayor’s order prohibits drag racing. An earlier anti-caravanning order from Scott did not mention drag racing when that order was issued in April.

The December order says participating in or a observing a drag race, as defined by a state law, “is strictly prohibited and will be enforced” from the date of the order until further notice, and allows the city to enforce the law after business hours at parking lots owned by private businesses, under certain circumstances.

Drag racing on a public road is a Class A misdemeanor and observing a drag race is a Class B misdemeanor under Arkansas law.

Police issued hundreds of citations and impounded vehicles last summer in an effort to stop vehicular caravans, Scott told city directors during a board meeting last month.

At the time, Scott described the most recent order as a short-term fix while the board awaits a formal ordinance to be prepared by the city attorney.