LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Two years ago, Little Rock saw the highest number of homicides in a year ever recorded.
At the same time, there were questions about who would take over the Little Rock Police Department as Chief Keith Humphrey left.
However, a name quickly emerged. It was someone who had been with the department for almost three decades. Now, his vision for a safer city has been coming together.
"I tell the community, 'Look, if you're expecting the police to do it by ourselves you're going to be disappointed,'" said LRPD Chief Heath Helton.
"C-P-R." has been an acronym for Chief Helton's vision to resuscitate life back into the Little Rock Police Department: Communication, Professionalism, and Relationships.
"It's going to take all of us working together to solve some of our problems," said Chief Helton.
During his leadership, technology has been a focus for fighting crime in the 21st century. Most notably, the Real-Time Crime Center.
Crime has also gone down since the record-breaking year of 2022 when Little Rock saw its most homicides ever. Chief Helton said he likes to look at the five-year average to get a better idea of where the Capital City stands on crime statistics.
As of this week, homicides are down 35% in the last half-decade, violent crime is down 1%, and total crime is down 2%.
"We're trending in the right direction but we have much much work to do," he said.
Chief Helton said that work looks like getting the community more involved, especially the younger generation.
"The youth right now is a serious concern. We see youth violence steadily increasing. The majority of our homicides last year were involving individuals from the age of 13 to 24," said Chief Helton.
So, he has been implementing more programs that focus on teens and young adults.
There is now an LRPD youth advocate and the chief holds a youth advisory council to get advice and recommendations from those who are impacted the most.
"Folks are getting tired of the violent crime, they are tired of seeing about homicides and I genuinely think people are wanting to make a difference," said Chief Helton.
Summertime is usually a time when crime increases while kids are out of school. Chief Helton said they are preparing for that.
They are also offering a summer camp for students 10 to 12 years old in June.
