State Police head joins Elumbaugh, Jeffery at recent City-County Connections meeting

Article by Emily Wang, White River Now

This month’s City-County Connections meeting with Batesville Mayor Rick Elumbaugh (pictured above, left) and Independence County Judge Kevin Jeffery (right) featured guest speaker Col. Mike Hagar (center), director of the Arkansas State Police and the Arkansas Secretary of Public Safety.

At the meeting held last Thursday night at The River Steakhouse in Batesville, Elumbaugh and Jeffrey provided updates on various community initiatives and discussed several significant projects currently underway, including some that have faced delays or challenges.

Parks and Recreation updates

The city recently received a $250,000 grant from the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism for Riverside Park, an important milestone in the park’s development, the mayor said.

“We are always grateful to receive support like this,” Elumbaugh said. The mayor noted the originally available funding looked closer to $750,000, but with the additional $250,000 grant, the project will move forward with the full $1 million budget.

Project delays

Jeffrey shared that the county yard shop, which has been under development for five years, is temporarily on hold. The judge said a letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed that the project is on pause.

Multiple delays have also delayed the construction of the Independence County Senior Citizens Center. Still, Jeffrey shared that he hopes the project will be wrapped up within the next few weeks after having “frank conversations” with the contractor.

State Police efforts and Crime Lab challenges
Guest speaker Col. Mike Hagar of the Arkansas State Police shared updates on law enforcement in the region.

Hagar, who has served in the department for 26 years, discussed the ongoing challenges faced by the state police in rural areas. In particular, he noted the issue of understaffing, with the department adding 155 new troopers in recent years.

“We’re strengthening our numbers for rural communities where local agencies depend heavily on the state police,” Hagar said.

The state police’s crime lab, which has struggled with understaffing and underfunding, will hold a groundbreaking for a new facility on April 8.

However, Hagar said the lab continues to face difficulties retaining skilled staff due to lower wages than neighboring states.

“We’re losing scientists to other states that offer better pay,” Hagar explained. “It’s critical we address this to keep our talent in Arkansas. It’s important to pay a livable wage. We are spending $120,000 a year to pay to get them through training. By the time they have completed their work, they’d leave and go to another state. We basically just became a training ground for other states, and that’s foolish.”


During a Q&A session, one attendee asked if the department receives any monetary benefit from YouTube channels that feature videos of the Arkansas State Police, many of which show traffic stops, wrecks, or other scenes from the police department’s work.

Hagar shared some frustration regarding these channels, noting that they not only do not receive any monetary benefit, but the department must also spend money to review the videos captured to redact the information of other citizens not directly involved in the interaction. They then turn over the so-called clean footage to these channels.

“We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and don’t get paid. We spend tons of money while they make tens of thousands of dollars a month doing it at our expense. We have looked at a way to undercut and start our own YouTube channel to put context with pursuits, but we got into all kinds of legal issues.”

Another attendee asked Hagar what the department’s stance is on ramming or the PIT maneuver, to which Hagar said, “Our troopers are taught we do not engage in high-speed pursuits. As soon as it [the vehicle] flees, we put it in the ditch [with the PIT maneuver].”

Hagar explained that their policy comes from the desire to protect citizens first, sharing that high-speed pursuits put innocent civilians in harm’s way.

“We have a clear priority of life: innocent civilians trump everything, troopers are second, and third is the suspect. That in mind, technically, it is not the safest thing for our trooper and suspect, but it is the safest thing for the public.”

At the age of seven, the youngest attendee asked Hagar how fast their Dodge Chargers could go, to which Hagar replied that the highest speed was 160 mph.

The next City-County Connection meeting is scheduled for next month.