Safety Concerns End Springdale Funeral Escorts

Manpower, Liability Remain Issues

— Safety is the No. 1 reason Springdale police no longer provides funeral escorts, said Mayor Doug Sprouse.

“Sometimes you have to make unpopular decisions in the interest of public safety,” Sprouse said. “I believe the way we’ve been conducting these processions has been very unsafe.”

Springdale police officials announced last week that the department stopped providing funeral escorts as of Jan. 15. The decision to halt escorts met with opposition, including phone calls, email and a newspaper ad that asked people to call city officials.

“I couldn’t live with myself if something similar was to happen after my chief and officers have warned me that this practice endangers the public.”

Mayor Doug Sprouse

“If people are going to be mad, they need to be mad at me for letting this unsafe practice go on as long as it has,” said Police Chief Kathy O’Kelley. “We don’t have the manpower available to make it any safer.”

Vicki Banks, a Springdale resident, said the procession was a sign of respect to those who have passed.

“I really wish they would reconsider,” Banks said Monday.

It is not about respect for the deceased, Sprouse said.

“We can’t put tradition, no matter how loved, above safety of the public,” Sprouse said.

Police escorted over 200 funerals in 2012, O’Kelley said. In 20 percent of those, only one police vehicle escorted the procession.

People believe they are under the protection of police when they follow a funeral procession through a red light or stop sign, O’Kelley said. They are not. Only when an officer is at the intersection directing traffic would a funeral procession have the right of way, O’Kelley said.

The minimum number of units needed to escort a funeral is six, O’Kelley said. The maximum for an escort from one side of the city to the other should be 17 to 18.

“We don’t have that many people on patrol working a shift,” O’Kelley said.

Staffing levels call for about 12 officers per shift, O’Kelley said. Rarely are more than one or two officers available for a funeral escort.

“Even if I accepted the overtime, I’m not sure I could get enough off-duty officers to come in on their days off,” O’Kelley said.

O’Kelley said she checked the 10 largest cities in Arkansas to see if they provide funeral escorts. Only Fayetteville, Rogers and Bentonville provide escorts, she said. None of the others, including Little Rock, Fort Smith, Pine Bluff and Jonesboro, do.

There is no Arkansas law that gives a funeral the right of way, said Ernest Cate, city attorney.

If a vehicle with a green light hit a vehicle in a funeral procession, the accident would be the fault of the person who failed to obey a traffic control device, Cate said.

Police vehicles providing an escort usually drive into an intersection and stop traffic, said Steve Davis, a Springdale traffic control officer. On the busy multi-lane intersections, that doesn’t work, he said.

“I’ve had people drive by me in the outside lanes,” Davis said. “My car is not long enough to block all the lanes.”

When stopped, those who drive through say they couldn’t see the blue lights because vehicles in the inside and turning lanes blocked their vision, he said.

The two city traffic control officers are the first choice to provide funeral escorts.

One person who complained about the decision said a procession recently went all the way down Sunset Avenue without any problems. That procession, said Rusty Boyd, a police officer, included a near miss of an accident.

“We’ve been lucky,” Davis said. “We haven’t had any accidents during processions.”

There have been several accidents when those who pull over for processions have been hit from behind, Davis said.

“Many cities are making the decision to halt escorts after a tragedy occurs,” Sprouse said. “I couldn’t live with myself if something similar was to happen after my chief and officers have warned me that this practice endangers the public.”

Mark Hayes, an attorney with the Arkansas Municipal League, recommended ending the escorts, Sprouse said. Phones were not answered at the League on Monday which was a holiday.

The city can be held liable if an accident happens during an escort by knowingly participating in a dangerous activity, Cate said.

Cities, private funeral escort services and funeral homes have been held liable in procession accidents, according to an attorney for the Ohio Funeral Directors Association.

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