BENTONVILLE — A former Washington County constable was arrested Friday in connection with a felony charge accusing him of impersonating a police officer.
Tommy Clowers is being held in the Benton County Jail awaiting a bond hearing, according to a news release from the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.
The arrest stems from a Jan. 18 complaint the Sheriff’s Office received from a person saying they had been stopped by someone and there was concern about whether that person was a police officer.
The complainant said the man who stopped him had emergency lights on his vehicle and was wearing a jacket with a sewn-on badge, according to the release. The man left the scene in his vehicle when the person who had been stopped asked to see his identification, according to the press release.
Deputy Jason Wood with the Sheriff’s Office’s specialized operations division was on patrol in Bentonville on Jan. 18 and saw a vehicle equipped to look like a police vehicle. The vehicle had a badge decal on the door that read “Civil Officer.” It also had an emergency light bar with blue lights. Wood recorded the vehicle’s tag number, according to the release.
Benton County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Springdale police searched Clowers’ home and found several items including the “Civil Officer” markings and blue light bars, according to the release.
Clowers is a former police officer at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill, but he doesn’t work for any law enforcement agency now, according to the release.
Clowers told deputies he believes he has the right to make traffic stops.
Sheriff Kelley Cradduck wants anyone who may have had contact with Clowers in similar incidents to call Wood at the Sheriff’s Office at 479-271-1008.
Cradduck said legitimate officers can produce credentials if not immediately visible or when asked.
“If you suspect you have been stopped or are being signaled to stop by someone impersonating an officer, you should immediately call 911,” Cradduck said. “Dispatchers can quickly determine if the traffic stop is legitimate. Additionally, placing your hazard lights on and slowly proceeding to a police department or a well-lit public place, such as an open convenience store, would be reasonable.”
Clowers, a Springdale Republican, was first elected constable in 1998, according to a 2010, report in the Northwest Arkansas Times. He lost the constable race in the May 2012 preferential primary.
According to the 2010 news report, Clowers, who was a constable at the time, said he had a marked car, uniforms and guns, but he didn’t make arrests or routine traffic stops.
“For me to make a traffic stop, it has to be something really serious ... I’m not a loose cannon,” Clowers said in the news report. “I’m mainly out there just to help the public like I’m empowered to do.”
Clowers’ term as constable ended Dec. 31.