LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Mayor Frank Scott, Jr., will be joined by leaders in the Little Rock Police Department and the Office of Neighborhood Safety within the Department of Community Programs to discuss steps that have been taken to curb violent crime.
They will include the steps taken in response to the declaration of violence as a public health emergency on Feb. 1.
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“We do understand we have seen an uptick in violent crime," Mayor Scott said. "We understand that residents are concerned."
He also added that crime has ebbs and flows and right now we are at the uptick.
“It’s not acceptable to see,” Mayor Scott said.
He said it has to be more than law enforcement. Little Rock police has a close to 80% capture rate, so “if you commit a crime, we will catch you.” The Mayor said we have to invest in our community, specially the young people.
Little Rock had 64 homicides in 2021. Most of those victims were between the ages of 11 to 24.
“We have teenagers who have access to military weapons,” the Mayor said.
The city approved $2 million last night [Tuesday] at the board meeting to address these issues. This will go to 11 organizations that will focus their time on the young people in the city.
The city is bringing back their summer youth program.
“They need to have a job," he said. "We need to keep them busy.”
Little Rock police Chief Keith Humphrey said these are the hot spots in our city where we see most of our violent crime.
“We cannot do this alone, as a police department,” Chief Humphrey said.
