re: #504 celticdragon

Why would you say it was false? The quotes were from statements made by the Chief of Police. Of course the police will say they are not violating your rights…they just may happen to have a very different understanding of your right to be on the street then you may have.

After a rather nasty round of public condemnation over the last three days, the Mayor is trying to walk back some of the comments. Two public hearings on the policy were cancelled due to “security concerns”.

The PD clarified…

12/16/2012
“Armed Patrol” Clarifications

Recently, an article was written by the Paragould Daily Press regarding our Street Crimes Unit. Following the article’s appearance, several questions and concerns have arisen from our citizens regarding the tactics and methods in which the unit would be operating under. At this time, we want to clarify the questions and concerns that are currently circulating in the community.

First, let’s look at the purpose of the Street Crimes Unit. The purpose of this unit is to increase police presence in high crime rate areas of the city. These areas are identified by examining reports generated from calls for service, and also from citizens who call the Police Department or City Hall with safety concerns in their neighborhoods. Once an area has been identified as a high crime neighborhood, the select group of officers will saturate the area in an attempt to curb the criminal behavior that is plaguing that particular neighborhood. Officers will accomplish this in a variety of different methods. Officers will be working to identify residents in the affected area so that we can better serve our affected neighborhoods. Most often, this identification process will be nothing more than making contact with a subject, handing them a business card, and asking if they live in the area and if there’s anything we can do for them. During hours in which crime seems to be more prevalent (i.e. between the hours of 11pm and 5 am), our process will become more stringent. We will be asking for picture identification. We will be ascertaining where the subject lives and what they are doing in the area. We will be keeping a record of those we contact. The record keeping is two-fold: First, we want to try to keep from over-lapping making contact with the same people multiple times. Once we know where people live, or that they always walk in that particular neighborhood, then we’ll not need to repeat that contact. We will not be harassing citizens. Secondly, by documenting those of the criminal element, we have a record of that contact and where/when it occurred. An example of where this will be helpful is if a crime (i.e. burglary, breaking or entering) is reported the next morning. We then have a list of “go-to” suspects to question regarding that incident or incidents.

Another issue that seems to be of concern is the mention of Street Crimes Unit officers carrying AR-15 rifles with them during these patrols. To give a little background information, several of our patrol officers already carry AR-15 rifles in their patrol vehicles. The AR-15 and police work is nothing new. Our Street Crimes Unit will not be wearing them constantly. That would be impractical. As we have stated in our meetings, our main purpose of mentioning this was to prepare our residents in the event that they saw an officer armed with one. When our officers deploy into areas where there is the potential for contacting several subjects in a high-crime area, that is when the potential deployment of AR-15’s will occur.

Continues.