Our View WMPD seeing early success under new leadership

Our View WMPD seeing early success under new leadership

Kudos to the West Memphis Police detectives and proving to low-life criminals coming here that if you smash into our businesses, sell drugs or hold us up with a gun for our money and possession you’ll eventually get caught.

We’d also like to give equal recognition to the Crittenden County Sheriff’s investigators for the excellent work they did to identify and capture the suspected thugs responsible for robbing of Flash Market north of Marion recently and shooting a customer.

These are just two of the latest serious crimes solved by these two professional law enforcement agencies that are the result of skilled training, knowledge of cyber technology, a highly cooperative relationship with other law enforcement agencies, particularly on the state and federal level and, above all, excellent leadership.

The accomplishments these two law enforcement agencies have been credited with sends a strong message to those outsiders with ill intent who think that they can come into our county and commit their dastardly deeds had better think twice because they will be caught in this complex dragnet, convicted and thrown into prison.

Admittedly, we are all fortunate to have such excellent men and women keeping us safe but while they just about always solve the crimes and apprehend the perpetrators unfortunately they can’t always prevent bad from occurring.

We have to say though that with the technology these department have available to them, such as the scores of surveillance cameras, the ability to track a suspect down with their cell phones as well as using social media crime prevention is evident.

Here’s a good recent example. A young woman was leaving Walmart and approached by a suspicious person. After rejecting this person’s advances the young woman got into her vehicle and drove to McDonald’s on Missouri and Shoppingway Way Boulevard where she was approached again this same man, who pulled a gun and shot out the woman’s tire on her vehicle.

While the woman was not injured a crime was seriously committed and West Memphis police detectives immediately turned to the city’s Sky Cop cameras located on the service road by Walmart as well as the cameras situated at Shoppingway and Missouri Street.

We also suspect detectives reviewed the recordings from the Walmart parking lot and store to identify the suspects.

In the case of the Flash Market robbery and shooting surveillance cameras aided greatly in identifying the suspects. Their identities along with the help of other law enforcement agencies as well as tracking the suspects location through the use of their cell phones resulted in their apprehension in Kansas City, Kansas.

Again, let us point out that the leadership and professionalism within both the West Memphis Police Department and the Crittenden County Sheriff’s office are second to none when it comes to utilizing resources of state and federal agencies and taking full advantages of the latest technology designed to identify and track down the criminals among us.