The head of Little Rock police's 12th Street patrol division, which encompasses downtown, pointed Thursday to hard work by officers in the first three months of 2022, even as stats showed the number of homicides in the division's area had doubled over a year's time.
In the quarterly meeting, which was open to the public, Maj. Andre Dyer shared statistics from Jan. 1 to March 28 that showed the number of violent crimes in his division were up 41% from the same period in 2021.
Homicide was up by the steepest percentage, rising from three killings by March 28 last year to seven this year, a 133% increase. That was compared to a 33% increase in homicides in the city as a whole in that period.
The latest stats available from the city run through April 11 and show a 12% increase in homicides in the city, while the rate in 12th Street's area reflects a 100% jump.
The increase "looks kinda bad," Dyer said. "But I assure you, with the way things are this day and age, I believe we're holding our own."
In just over 27 years of policing, Dyer said he's "never seen it the way it is right now."
In his opinion, Dyer said, there are a handful of repeat offenders causing problems, especially when it comes to homicides, and the department is focusing on bringing them in.
On the same day as the quarterly review, Little Rock police reported arresting suspects in three separate homicides.
"The one thing we can't always do is stop these things from happening," Dyer said.
Other violent crimes also saw increases in Dyer's division, such as robbery, which was up 46% from that time a year before, and aggravated assault, which was up 42%.
It is "extremely difficult" for police to keep people from getting ahold of guns, which are usually used in aggravated assaults, Dyer said, because of the lenient gun laws in the state.
In Dyer's opinion, he said, only stricter gun laws will help prevent the number of assaults they're seeing. That leaves police trying to capture criminals after the fact.
Businesses can help themselves and police by investing in quality surveillance cameras in their properties so that if they are robbed, they can help police identify the suspects more easily.
The division had made progress in residential burglaries, with only 49 reported compared to 70 by the end of the first quarter of 2021.
Dyer attributed the change to his officers' working hard.
"I have five guys back there doing the work of seven, but they don't gripe," Dyer said.
Manpower has always been an issue, Dyer said, but he said that it hasn't had an effect on the division's daily operations.
The department as a whole is not fully staffed, but currently has a high number of officers, representing about 2.5 officers for every 1,000 citizens, Chief Keith Humphrey said. He compared that to a standard of 1.5 officers per thousand, but didn't say where that number came from.
In 2019, the FBI reported that in cities with between 100,000 and 249,000 residents, like Little Rock, the average number of law enforcement employees per 1,000 inhabitants was 2.1. The data did not state if it included non-sworn law enforcement employees.
Including cities of all sizes, the national average was 2.9 per thousand residents, the FBI data showed.
The 12th Street patrol division has 115 sworn officers, 68 of whom are regular patrol officers.
Having a large number of officers dedicated to patrolling the streets is a goal for the department, Humphrey said. In the past, he said, about 180 of the department's whole staff were patrol officers, but that number is now more than 200.
"That's our priority," Humphrey said.
The other patrol divisions, Northwest and Southwest, will host their own quarterly reviews at their respective substations in the coming weeks. As covid-19 restrictions lift, citizens can attend these meetings in person or via teleconference.