TEXARKANA ARKANSAS POLICE

YEARLY REPORT

2000

ROBERT H. HARRISON

CHIEF OF POLICE

PERSONNEL

The Police Department was operating at full staffing levels at the end of 2000, which represents a 33 percent increase over 1990 levels. Many of these additional commissioned positions have been created utilizing funding from federal, state, and local grants. This has proven to be an excellent means of enhancing our community’s law enforcement resources with only a minimalinvestment of local funds. As the City as grown and annexed new areas, these positions have proven necessary. The PoliceDepartment is dedicated to exploring alternative funding sources in the future for needed personnel and equipment to provide ourcommunity with quality law enforcement.

INDEX CRIME

The Texarkana Police Department was involved in an extremely high profile burglary investigation in 2000, whichwas ultimately dubbed “The Broadmoor Bandit” by the local media. During the investigation, which ran from Marchthrough August of 2000, both Texarkana, Arkansas and Texarkana, Texas were experiencing numerous nighttime home invasion burglaries. Approximately 50 residential, and motor vehicle burglaries were reported to thedepartment during that time. A task force involving personnel from the Criminal Investigation Division, the UniformPatrol Division, and the Narcotics Task Force was established to combat the incidents. Ultimately, the TexarkanaTexas Police Department joined, forming a multi jurisdictional task force to address the burglaries. In August of2000, two Texarkana, Arkansas detectives located the suspect who had been identified as Henry Love inTexarkana, Texas. The Arkansas detectives detained Mr. Love until TTPD officers could arrive and take him intocustody. As a result of the extensive investigation, over 50 criminal cases were cleared in Texarkana, Arkansas by the arrest of Love.

We realized a 9 percent increase in the number of felony investigations conducted in 2000, over those conducted in 1999. In 2000, detectives investigated approximately 1,652 adult felony offenses and over 180 juvenile felony offenses. Even with the 9-10% increase in the number of felony crimes investigated, we still attained a 59 percent clearance rate on felony crimes in the final quarter of 2000.

In order to combat the increase in felony crimes and to facilitate the sharing of criminal intelligence, the Texarkana Police Department purchased several computers utilizing federal Asset Forfeiture Funds. We developed partnerships with organizations such as RPIS / ROCIC and established an Intelligence / Crime Analysis Unit. We expect this unit will be fully staffed by members from Texarkana, Arkansas and Texarkana, Texas Police Departments by mid-2001 and will be able to provide invaluable information to patrol officers and detectives in both agencies.

Budget

Expenditures remained within prorated limits for all police budgets during FY2000. The total vehicle maintenance expenditures for 2000 were $68,085, which represents a 19.3 percent increase over 1999. Barring some unexpected expense, we anticipate these costs to remain high through FY2001. Fuel costs are not reflected in these figures.

Grant Status

Conscious of the City’s financial situation, we have been very aggressive pursuing funding opportunities at the federal, state, and local levels to supplement the City’s efforts to provide quality law enforcement to its citizens. We have been successful in securing over 3.2 million dollars of grant funding in the last five years. These funds have provided additional personnel, technology, equipment, and educational programs that would not have otherwise been available and have had a positive impact on the quality of life in our community. Below is a list of the grant programs active in 2000.

Expires 01/31/01. Pays partial salaries of three officers. The federal share is $225,000 and the local share is $99,660.

Expires 03/31/01. Pays the full salary of one police officer whose primary responsibility is Housing Authority property.

Expires 03/31/01. The federal share is $194,839.00 and local match is $83,219.00.

Expires 06/30/01. Pays the full salary of one police officer whose primary responsibility is as a school resource officer. The state amount is $38,980.78 and the local match is $7,091.85.

Expires 06/30/01. Pays the full salary of a police officer to investigate violent crime against women and a police liaison position. The state amount is $78,291.66, and the local match is $26,119.40.

Expires 08/19/01. Texarkana School District pays the full salary of one police officer/DARE instructor.

Expires 08/31/01. Provides the full salary of a civilian support employee. The federal amount is $18,362 and the local match is $6,120.

Expires 09/30/01. Provides law enforcement related equipment and technology. The federal amount is $66,975 and the local match is $7,442.

Expires 09/30/01. Pays overtime for DWI and speed enforcement overtime. Federal amount is $40,000 with no local match.

Expires 09/30/02. Provides law enforcement related equipment and technology. The federal amount is $56,891 and the local match is $6,321.

Expires 3/31/02. Pays half of cost of bulletproof vests.

OPERATIONS

Response Times

Examples of calls associated with each priority level:

Priority 1 – Urgent Requests for assistance from Fire, EMS, or Police

Priority 2 – Accident with Injuries, Bank Robbery, Burglary in progress, Homicide, Suicide, House Fire

Priority 3 – Accident without Injuries, Intrusion Alarms, DOA, Disturbance in progress, DWI, Prowler

Priority 4 – Funeral Escorts, Curfew Violation, Animal Running Loose, Loud Party, Prostitution

Priority 5 – Burglary already occurred, Disturbance already occurred, Forgery already occurred

Priority 6 – Parking complaint, Fireworks complaint, Gas Theft, Loose Animal

Narcotics

Total street value of narcotics seized: $2,884,075.00

Arrest and cases filed by investigators: 192

Search warrants executed: 26

Animal Services

Training

Texarkana police officers were provided a total of 10,129 hours of in-service training during 2000. The training areas were from a wide range of specialties depending upon the officer’s job assignment. Courses included were basic police academy, firearms, critical incident planning, criminal investigation methods, crime analysis, and drug enforcement. We were fortunate to be able to form a partnership with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve unit in Texarkana, Texas in 2000 to provide officers with access to a firearm training simulator (FATS) system. Officers were placed in realistic scenarios using video technology and forced to make a split-second decision on the use of deadly force. This training proved to be very beneficial to our department. Officers assigned to SWAT and K-9 received additional training on a monthly basis to maintain their required level of expertise and competence.