JERICHO, AR - Under investigation and possibly under state takeover. A Crittenden County judge is suggesting people living in Jericho, Arkansas push to dissolve the town’s charter. That’s if the mayor and police department don’t clean up their act.
Jericho Mayor Helen Adams wouldn’t answer questions from myEyewitnessNews.com, but she may have to answer to concerned citizens like Shayla Williams. Like many people living in Jericho, Williams says she’s been harassed by the local police department. “I don’t even know if any of them are really cops, but they think because they’re in the uniform they can do anything to anybody.”
Crittenden County Judge Melton Holt says he’s received dozens of complaints about the excessive amount of traffic tickets coming from Jericho; tickets as high as $200 for going two to three miles over the speed limit. Incidents like these have prompted Judge Holt to offer two solutions: One option is to elect a whole new mayor and city council in 2010. Option two is to start a petition to surrender the town’s charter. Which means no local police department. Instead, the Crittenden County Sheriff’s Department will patrol the town of 187. Tommy Martin with the Crittenden County Sheriff’s Department says his deputies are up to the challenge. “We’ve been providing patrols to all of those areas for extended periods of time anyway. They’re not providing a service to their citizens. They’re out there for revenue sources and they’re not out there to protect and serve and that’s why we’ve asked for assistance from the state to put an end to this and we’ll do everything we can to help them.”
People living in Jericho tell myEyewitnessNews.com they plan on meeting with Judge Holt for his help drafting the petition. If it makes its way to Williams, she says she’ll sign in a heartbeat. “That would be better than Jericho having its own police, because they’re mean. They’re like bullies, so I would prefer somebody else do it.”
Dissolving the charter would require a special election. 51 percent of voters would have to approve the proposal Fire and police protections would have to come from neighboring towns and the county.
