Little Rock crime, community markedly different from police chief's last city

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Keith Humphrey spoke with optimism Thursday after Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. named him the new chief of the city's police department.

In a news conference announcing his appointment, Humphrey vowed to make Little Rock the "safest city not only in Arkansas, but in the United States." He said he'd work toward eliminating the perception of Little Rock as a violent city, a perception that's been reinforced over the years through an HBO documentary about the city's street gangs, a mass shooting at a downtown nightclub and regular appearances on "most dangerous cities" lists published by travel and real estate agencies.

"I think when you say that all the time, then people start to believe that," Humphrey said at the news conference. "So we're going to try to eliminate that perception. It's going to be a lot of work but, absolutely, we're going to take care of this. We're going to reduce crime."

But in Little Rock, the crime and the community are very different than in Norman, Okla., where Humphrey was police chief the past seven years. The college town of 122,000 outside Oklahoma City averaged 112.8 aggravated assaults per year during Humphrey's tenure, according to data Norman police submitted to the FBI for the agency's annual Uniform Crime Report.

That's about 6 percent of the 1,726 aggravated assaults that Little Rock averaged each year during that time. Little Rock has about 76,000 more residents.

There was also a great difference in the number of homicides. Norman logged fewer than three annually during Humphrey's tenure. Little Rock averaged more than 38 per year.

Crime stats for Norman in 2015 were excluded in the calculations because they were not found in the FBI's report that year.

The levels of property crime in the cities were also markedly different. Little Rock averaged more than 2,887 burglaries per year between 2011 and 2017, while Norman counted 625 per year. As for vehicle thefts, Little Rock averaged more than 1,167 annually while Norman saw 228.

There were more than 10,300 incidents of larceny, or petty theft, in Little Rock and about 2,400 in Norman.

When asked during the news conference about the disparity between the two cities, Humphrey said he was "not at all" concerned about his ability to handle the crime in Little Rock.

"When you're a leader and you're confident in your abilities, you know how to address things," he said. "And it's a team effort. So it's not about me. It's a team effort."

Humphrey has three decades of law enforcement experience. He was chief of police in Lancaster, Tex., a city of 39,000 south of Dallas, before he became chief in Norman. Scott said he chose Humphrey to lead the Little Rock Police Department because he "stood out as the best candidate to build and strengthen bridges between the community and the police."

On paper, at least, the communities appear very different. Norman, which is home to the University of Oklahoma, is 78 percent white and 5 percent black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Little Rock is 51 percent white and 42 percent black. The Hispanic and Latino population is about the same in the cities, as is the poverty level of about 18 percent.

The average median household income in Norman is $53,733, about $5,200 more than in Little Rock.

Scott chose Humphrey to lead Little Rock police over two high-ranking internal candidates, assistant chiefs Alice Fulk and Hayward Finks, each of whom have more than 27 years of experience at the department.

Scott praised Humphrey's leadership experience at the news conference last Thursday. He said at least six officers who formerly worked under Humphrey have become chiefs at other departments.

"I felt he best lined up with our vision to unify our city, to secure our neighborhoods and engage our youth to make sure that they reach their full potential," Scott said.

Humphrey is set to take office by April 22.

"If not for the city of Norman," Humphrey said Thursday, "I don't know if I would have been prepared to take this job."