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Making Crime a Priority |
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 FACT:
According to the FBI, and various other reporting agencies, Little Rock
has one of the highest per capita homicide rates in the nation.
FACT: According to Forbes who recently ranked the “most livable” cities
in the U.S., Little Rock ranked 145 out of 150 on the crime index.
FACT: According to Morgan Quitno Press, publisher of annual City
rankings, Little Rock was recently ranked as the 25th most dangerous
city out of 371 U.S. cities reviewed.
A Strong Police Force
Mark Stodola will implement an aggressive recruitment and retention
program to hire and keep the best police force in Arkansas. Currently
the annual number of personnel retiring or resigning exceeds the number
of new recruits. The City of Little Rock has 50 vacant police officer
positions at a time when the violent crime rate is at an all time high.
This must change. Mark will call for attractive incentives to employ
qualified police officers with signing bonuses so that the hiring
process can be accelerated.
Year Round “Operation Quiet Nights”
Mark Stodola will call for the continued implementation of “Operation
Quiet Nights.” Currently, during the summer months, teams of officers
focus on areas of the city that experience a concentrated number of
violent crimes, homicides and narcotics complaints. As a former
prosecutor, Mark understands that violent crime and drug offenses are
year-round problems that require the full time attention of the police
force. As your Mayor, Mark Stodola will implement this program with
additional police personnel assigned to give Little Rock residents a
meaningful “Operation Quiet Nights” program.
Aggressive Code Enforcement
The City currently has over 650 abandoned houses and approximately 7,000
vacant weed lots which are breeding grounds for crime. Quality of life
is important to all citizens of Little Rock. Mark Stodola understands
that old, abandoned and vacant houses detract from Little Rock’s ability
to recruit business and industry to our city. Often times they are
havens for drug deals resulting in violent crimes and homicides. As
Little Rock Mayor, Mark Stodola will make aggressive code enforcement a
priority by hiring additional code enforcement officers and providing
them with the tools to ensure that Little Rock is a cleaner, safer and
more beautiful city. He will aggressively pursue absentee landlords to
make them responsible owners of their property.
Community-Oriented Policing
Currently, many parts of the City, particularly in West and Southwest
Little Rock, are experiencing nearly a 10% increase in burglaries and
vehicle break-ins. Mark Stodola knows that the heart of this great city
begins in your neighborhood. He believes that every Little Rock resident
deserves to feel safe and protected in their home. As Mayor, Mark will
work to restore the community police officers to the City Neighborhood
Alert Centers and put additional COPP mobile units on the streets of
Little Rock with a focus is on preventing crime. Under his leadership,
community police officers will once again be partners with the neighbors
that they serve and protect.
Mid-Town
Police Substation
For years Mark Stodola has examined the crime statistics for the City of
Little Rock and recognizes that deterrence and prevention can be
bolstered by the opening of a Midtown Police Substation. Like the
Northwest and Southwest parts of the city, residents of Mid-Town
deserves a round-the-clock police presence that will be available for
rapid response to any criminal activity in the area. As Mayor, Mark will
make a Mid-Town Police Substation a reality.
Prevention, Intervention and
Treatment Programs
Currently the City of Little Rock spends $3.2 million dollars annually
on prevention, intervention and treatment programs. Mark Stodola
believes that the long term solution to the City’s crime problem is best
solved through the implementation of effective programs targeted toward
the systemic causes of crime. These causes are most often rooted in lack
of education, unemployment, homelessness, drug addition, mental illness
and too few role models or constructive activities which instill in our
citizens a respect for people and property.
As Mayor, Mark will seek out, with the help of the business community,
more jobs for our young people. He will work with our school districts
and colleges to develop after school activities that will re-enforce the
financial success a good education can provide. Mark will also reach out
to all segments of our racially diverse community to find adult role
models to be mentors to our at-risk youth. He will request an audit of
how we are currently spending the $3.2 million dollars to ensure that
our tax dollars are being spent on effective programs. Since drug and
alcohol addictions go hand in hand with joblessness and criminal
activity, we need to be sure the programs supported by the city are
effective.
“Put Them To
Work Detail”
Currently the Little Rock Police Department has only one employee to
oversee prisoners assigned to community service work as a part of their
sentence. This employee can supervise 12 - 15 prisoners on a daily
basis. Mark Stodola will expand this function of the Police Department
with additional personnel so that the city can have nearly 100 prisoners
who on a daily basis are working off their sentences by cleaning up the
roadways, ditches and vacant lots in the City. People who violate the
law need to pay back the community for the crimes they have committed.
If we can’t put them in jail, we should put them to work!
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