The Gould Police Department's nine officers will soon receive brand new armored protective vests after the City Council unanimously approved a $4,000 supplemental appropriation to the department for the purchase.
That approval was given following an impassioned plea from Police Chief Kenneth Tillman, who told the council that his officers had never had new vests, and he was concerned that the used vests donated by other departments may not be effective if his officers should come under fire.
"We've been having old vests for a long time," Tillman said. "We've had a lot of stuff happening with officers. I think we need to get them some brand new vests. We've always had old vests and I'm not sure they would stop a bullet."
"They need protection so we need to get them," said Council Member Patricia Stephens.
"I agree," said City Attorney Clint Todd. "It's much better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them. How many officers do you have and how many vests do you plan to order?"
"Well, none of them have had new vests," Tillman replied. "So, it's nine. We've always gotten ours from Pine Bluff or from surplus, but the way things are happening now we don't really want to get them like that. They're making traffic stops, going into houses with guns, and it will make them move a little slow, you know, if you don't feel like you're protected."
Tillman said he had researched new vests and found that he could outfit all nine of his officers for about $4,000, which the council quickly agreed to.
"So, $4,000 will cover all nine vests?" Mayor Matthew Smith asked.
"The last time I checked it would," Tillman said.
Looking over the financial report for the month, Smith noted that revenue from the police department has been down during the pandemic, revenue which he said sometimes would run as high as $25,000 in a month's time. Todd noted that because of where Gould is situated, 30 miles south of Pine Bluff on U.S. 65 -- the major north-south corridor linking Central Arkansas to the Gulf Coast -- fewer people traveling means less revenue for the town from traffic fines.
"The reason being is that the interstate stops in Pine Bluff, and through here, it's the main thoroughfare for people traveling north of us to get to the beach, to get to New Orleans, to get through there," Todd said. "So with less travel we get less people coming through here, and by statistics, less people speeding through here. So, it probably has slowed it down a little bit, especially in the summer months when there would have been a lot more people headed to New Orleans, to the beach, and things of that nature had covid not happened."
Discussion of a mask ordinance for the city was dropped after both Smith and Todd pointed out that a state mandate on masks, which the city was considering modeling an ordinance on, is virtually unenforceable.
"The wording of the state statute makes it very difficult to enforce. It says you must wear a mask where social distancing is impracticable," Todd said. "Well, I'd have to measure the room, count the people, and make a very detailed argument in order to get it to stick. I feel that it's more to encourage people to do it than to actually enforce it."
Todd said an easier way of enforcement would be to point out to people when they are violating the mask statute and, should they refuse to don a mask and refuse to leave the premises, a trespassing charge would be appropriate and much easier, he said, to enforce.
"We had one or two at the dollar store like that," he said. "They threw a fit but they actually did leave. Now, if someone is making a big enough scene that they're still there when the police show up, at a private business you can charge them with trespassing. It kind of the biggest offenders you're dealing with and doing it that way makes it easier to enforce."
A 1-cent sales tax to fund water improvements in the city will have to wait until sometime next year to go to the ballot, and will most likely have to be done in a special election, Todd told the council. Hopes had been to get the issue on the ballot for the General Election, but the city attorney said such a ballot issue must be painstakingly prepared and only a few law firms in the state have the expertise to craft the ballot language.
Todd said he had talked with Ryan Bowman at the Little Rock law firm of Friday Eldridge and Clark, and told the council that if the city decides exactly what is wanted, that Bowman could set up a phone call to start the process.
"He said we'd need to flesh out the details and they can put it together for us," he said, adding that it could be ready to take to a vote by March of next year.
At last month's meeting, Smith had said he hoped to avoid having to call a special election for the proposal because of the cost.