The head of Little Rock police's Northwest Patrol Division told community members Thursday that homicides in his unit's area had risen 103% in the past five years, indicating a trend of killings that predates the pandemic and defies the overall decrease in violent crime during the same period.
"That is crazy," Maj. Casey Clark said, pointing at the statistic circled in red on a screen during the division's quarterly meeting Thursday evening.
Overall in Clark's Northwest Division, which covers 46 square miles from University Avenue to the western city limits and from Kanis Road north to the river, violent crimes dropped 3%, but the surge in homicides was still concerning, he said. The area covered by the division saw 15 homicides this year, as of July 18. Last year over the same period, there were 10 homicides.
The area has averaged 7.4 homicides over the past five years.
Little Rock police consider homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault as violent crimes, their statistics show.
Most of these killings arose between people who knew each other from disputes over business deals, a romantic partner or an insult, often on social media, Clark said.
"It's the normal things that people would get involved with, but not typically shoot and kill one another [over]," Clark said.
Echoing what other police officials, including former Police Chief Keith Humphrey, have said, Clark said that the methods of conflict resolution have changed since his youth, with deadlier results.
"What used to be a fistfight is now a gunfight," Clark said.
Although the five-year change represents a steadier increase in violence, the change between April through June of last year and this year's second quarter was more dramatic. In that three-month period last year, two people died by homicide, but this year that number rose to seven, a 250% increase.
Robberies were up 115% in the quarter too, from 13 last year to 28 this year. Rapes were down 45% and aggravated assaults showed no change, with 198 in that period both years.
"Basically, all the numbers are up," Clark said.
When it comes to preventive action, Clark named several apartment complexes in the city that police think are becoming havens of crime, especially violent crime.
Clark listed addresses, mentioning Big County Chateau at 6200 Colonel Glenn Road, Westbridge Apartments at 2123 Labette Manor Drive and Normandy Place Apartments near 7111 Indiana Ave., as well as numerous complexes along Mara Lynn Road.
City officials believe the poor living conditions at these complexes are prompting people to commit crimes, something Mayor Frank Scott Jr. has mentioned before in his now-monthly press conferences.
"The living conditions there that we can see from outside, because we don't have the probable cause to go inside, are not good," Clark said Thursday.
In 2022 alone, there have been two homicides reported at Big Country Chateau, one reported at Normandy Place and a shooting that killed a pregnant woman's two unborn children at Westbridge Apartments, data from Little Rock police showed.
Calls requesting comment to the three apartment complexes mentioned by Clark were not answered Saturday. The voicemail box at Westbridge Apartments was full, while the phone number listed on Normandy Place's website was apparently no longer in service.
In February, the city's police and code-enforcement issued citations at the nearby Bradford Estates apartment complex at 6310 Colonel Glenn Road, with Scott citing similar reasoning of poor living conditions contributing to crime.
Of approximately 100 citations issued during the so-called sweep, only one was criminal -- a traffic court violation, the Democrat-Gazette has previously reported.
Last year, three separate homicides were reported at Bradford Estates, data from Little Rock police showed.
City code officials have been documenting problems with utilities at Big Country Chateau, Clark said in response to a question from a resident about if the owners were being punished, but he did not specifically say they have been fined.
Clark implied that the situation at Big Country Chateau would change "in the next couple of days," but did not speak specifically about the city's plans.
With many apartment complexes owned by out-of-state companies, or changing hands between business partners to avoid legal consequences, holding the owners responsible for crime at their properties is difficult Clark said.
Even without the shifting ownership, proving a owner was knowingly responsible for crime on their property is challenging, Clark acknowledged.
However, the officers in his division spend any time they have not performing their regular patrols keeping an eye on the properties that police have identified as crime hot-spots, Clark said.
In the second three months of 2022, Clark's officers had made arrests in their division resulting in 466 felony charges and 619 misdemeanor charges, with seven illegal weapons recovered, he said.
"The tempo that we're out right now, we're busy," Clark said.