Chief talks low crime rate in Rogers

ROGERS -- An overview of the Police Department and a run down of crime statistics in the city were the opening program for the fall start of the Rogers Public Library's Lunch and Learn program Tuesday.

Eighty-percent of the 8,210 incidences investigated in Rogers last year were property crime, said Police Chief Hayes Minor.

Officers have worked 1,496 motor vehicle accidents and 547 private property accidents this year, Minor told the group. There have been 340 domestic violence cases.

There have been 157 burglaries, a number down from last year, he said.

So far this year in Rogers, there have been 377 theft cases and 342 shoplifting cases, with the shoplifting reports coming mostly from Walmart stores, Minor said.

There has been one murder/suicide which began as a domestic violence incident, four investigations into shooting incidents and five investigations into stabbing incidents, Minor said. The people who were involved in those violent crimes knew each other, Minor said.

"There is very, very little random violent crime in the city of Rogers," he said.

There have been, however, 252 cases involve breaking or entering. Those cases are often otherwise good kids who get bored and go "car hopping" where they walk through a neighborhood and try the doors of the cars parked there. When they find an unlocked car they may take pocket change or valuables or even nothing at all.

"If you take anything away from today when you get home tonight lock your car doors," Minor said, a theme he repeated during his hour-long talk.

Audience members came away feeling a reinforced sense of security.

Sharon Fox of Rogers said she always locks her doors, but feels better knowing violent crimes aren't random in Rogers.

Jean Melrose of Rogers asked Minor about gangs in the city.

Minor said he defines a gang problem as drive-by shootings, graffiti, street corner drug sales and open air prostitution. Rogers has occasional spurts of graffiti, he said.

"What's going on in Springdale, I'm not going to say it will never happen in Rogers," Minor said.

But, he told his audience, it isn't random violence either.

"This is settling old scores, to the best of my knowledge," he said.

The answer was informative and comforting, Melrose said.

"I feel very confident that we're in a good town, a good city to live in," she said.

Minor talked about police operations, highlighting equipment such as onboard cameras in police vehicles and less-lethal shotguns used by the department which essentially shoot a bean bag. It might hurt, but it won't kill, he said.

Officers can make bad decisions if they don't have the right equipment, Minor said, pointing to a police shooting case where the officer was armed with a baton and a gun and had no options in between.

Every time a Rogers officer pulls his gun and points it at somebody, uses other force or has an incident such as a traffic accident, it triggers an internal review, he said. There were 141 such reviews last year, and 48 involved using force.

Rogers officers de-escalate situations well, Minor said.

There were 5,250 arrests last year, much of it a push to clear a backlog of warrants, he said.

"If we're using force 48 times to put handcuffs on 5,000 people our officers are doing a good job," he said.

Carol Dunahoo of Rogers said she has seen officers talk down a situation in her neighborhood and it worked.

"They were so polite," Dunahoo said.

Minor said he encourages officers to interact with the community outside urgent calls. Anytime an officer has time to chat with residents, walk a park, talk to children at a baseball game or be seen in a community context that's a plus, he said.

Budgets and reports get in the way but the presentation was a way for him to connect with the community, Minor told his audience.

"I don't do it often enough," he said.

NW News on 09/09/2015