SPRINGDALE — A recently refitted van is allowing more police officers to stay on patrol instead of ferrying prisoners to county jails.
Springdale is the only city in Washington County with a city jail, said Kathy O’Kelley, police chief. The jail holds misdemeanor prisoners; felony prisoners go to county jails.
Previously, police officers on the late shift would start shuttling county prisoners before court started, sometimes as early as 3 a.m. Occasionally, four officers and their vehicles would be tied up with prisoner transport.
At A Glance
Springdale Police Trips To County Jails
City police officers made 3,430 trips in 2012 to Washington or Benton counties to pick up or drop off prisoners. A round trip to the Washington County Detention Facility is 44 miles. Officers drove about 154,000 miles to the jails in 2012 at a cost of about $50,000.
Source: Springdale Police Department
“We wouldn’t have enough people on the street because so many would be carrying prisoners,” O’Kelley said.
The van was received through court forfeiture, and was retrofitted to meet requirements that prisoners be separated. The court bailiff and a jailer assigned to the court drive the van to county jails in Fayetteville and Bentonville to pick up and drop off prisoners.
“Now we can pick up all the prisoners with one swoop,” O’Kelley said. “We can hit Benton and Washington counties on one trip.”
The Springdale jail can only house 12 prisoners, far fewer than the number who go through the court system each day.
All felony prisoners have to go to the county jails.
The Springdale jail cannot house women prisoners because cells housing women must be out of sight and sound of those housing men, O’Kelley said. All the cells in the city jail are within earshot of other cells, so women must go to county jails.
About 10 percent of Springdale extends into Benton County. If a felony crime is committed in the Benton County portion of Springdale, individuals arrested must go to Bentonville.
A prisoner held in the county jails who also has pending misdemeanor charges must go to court in Springdale.
Further complicating the situation are requirements that certain prisoners be separated from one another.
Individuals facing felony charges must be separated from those who have only misdemeanor charges pending.
The van must have space to separate those prisoners, too.
The city purchased a kit for about $15,000 that slid into the back of the van. It has three separate compartment, each with lights, cameras and microphones. The cameras allow prisoners to be monitored during the trip. Capacity of the van is 10, but quarters are so tight that the effective limit is seven, said Brian Bersi, court bailiff.
“Usually, one trip is all we have to make,” Bersi said. “We can start at 6 a.m. and be back for court at 8 a.m.”
A trip to Washington County only takes about one hour, Bersi said.
The van may help the department financially, O’Kelley said.
“I think we will reduce that cost substantially,” O’Kelley said. “It’s a money-saver and a time-saver.”
“And I’ve got more officers on the street,” said Capt. Ron Hritz of the Patrol Division. “It’s great.”
Washington County operates three transport vans, said Keith Hurley, deputy sheriff. The vans are mainly used to take prisoners to state Department of Correction facilities, he said. They also have separate compartments for prisoners.
The Fayetteville Police Department uses patrol cars to take prisoners to Washington County, said Craig Stout, department public information officer. Rogers police have a van with an interior cage, said Keith Foster, public information officer. The cage does have separate compartments, but female prisoners are transported to and from the Benton County Jail by patrol car, he said.
Bersi and Ron Findley, jailer, return prisoners to the county jails from court — as well as anyone newly arrested for a felony — at about 2 p.m. each day, Bersi said.
The two have made 315 trips to the county jails since the van went into service April 8, Findley said.
“We have worked out some bugs,” Bersi said. “We had to learn the best way to run the trip to miss the traffic. I’m sure we’ll be changing some things in the future to be even more efficient.”