FAULKNER COUNTY, Ark. — The Faulkner County prosecutor is asking Arkansas State Police to investigate after allegations that a small town straddling Faulkner and Van Buren Counties is operating a speed trap. It’s an allegation Fox16 Investigates has been digging into since April after we received complaints from our viewers.

“What is the difference in a law enforcement officer going out there and using his authority to rob someone than someone pulling a gun on you and robbing you?” Bud McMunn asked.

McMunn met us at a coffee shop just down the road from Damascus. He reached out to us alleging that he had inquired about employment with the department, but something just didn’t seem right about the way the operation was run.

“Is it akin to highway robbery?” this reporter asked McMunn.

“That’s what I call it – stop to rob,” McMunn said. “Using your authority to stop the people and rob them.”

According to McMunn, the department’s police chief said the focus for officers was on highway patrol, specifically speeders from out of town.

“They rely on this revenue to keep the little cities afloat,” McMunn said. “It’s kind of ironic that small towns would do this, but they need to find alternative means to stay financially afloat instead of looking for money out on the highway.”

State Police Investigation Requested

Arkansas law bans speed traps, meaning a department can’t write more than half of its speeding tickets on for less than 10 miles an hour over the speed limit. It can’t generate revenue that exceeds more than 30 percent of the preceding year’s expenses. Either is a violation.

“We want to make sure when we enforce our laws it is not about creating any more money for anyone,” Prosecutor Cody Hiland said. “If a city is aiming to generate copious amounts of revenue, I believe that violates the Arkansas Speed Trap Law.”

And that’s the crux of it for Hiland, who is now asking for Arkansas State Police to investigate the department. By statute, a prosecutor is the only one who can request a review by Arkansas State Police.

The state police then request certified records of citations, fines, fees and other appropriate records. According to Arkansas State Police, the criminal investigation division handles the investigation. Hiland added that the Bureau of Legislative Audit with the state would also be assisting.

“This festered for a while let’s go ahead and resolve it and determine if the numbers meet the threshold under state law,” Hiland said.

According to Hiland, the city welcomes the review, and city attorney Beau Wilcox agreed with Hiland that it would be a good idea to get outside analysis.

“There’s that perception that there is a speed trap, and it’s pretty widespread. When you combine that with the city’s interest in protecting their reputation want the facts to determine if they’re a speed trap or not,” Hiland said.

But back in April when Fox16 Investigates was asking the city for citation data under Freedom of Information, city attorney Wilcox agreed to turn over the records, but wrote us back saying in part “I do not see the compelling public interest served by data concerning speeding citations” in response to our request that he waive copying fees for data we had requested electronically. You can read the full email here.

We reached out to Damascus Police Chief Rick Perry, requesting an interview to talk about the investigation and the allegations against the department. He referred us to Wilcox. Wilcox emailed, saying he would give us a call. We’re still waiting.

“The Numbers Tell the Story”

“The numbers tell the story — that’s why you ask for the investigation,” Hiland said. “We’ll see what state police find and if it is in violation with the statute.”

When asked, State Police said it would follow the law regarding which formula to use in determining the percentages and if Damascus was in violation of the law.

But the law has some gray areas. It doesn’t note whether revenues from citations are before or after the state, county and other agencies take their cuts. And in Damascus, the city water department and the city’s other operations are audited as separate entities by the state. So would ASP look at the water department expenses and revenues in addition to the city expenditures the audit reflected? Arkansas State Police nor Hiland could say.

So while we don’t know which formula State Police will use for calculations, we do have data from the Damascus District Court that took us several weeks to receive and many more to try and analyze. According to the official audits conducted by the Division of Legislative Audit (linked in this sentence), when added, the City and its water department combined expenses came in at roughly $1.3 million in 2014.

In 2015, according to the data the court provided on its own citations and the payments received, fines paid on just speeding and unsafe driving citations from the Damascus Police Department brought in $607,939 in revenues before payments to the state or other entities were made. That comes out to 46 percent of the expenses for the preceding year.

“They’re supposed to be serving and protecting,” McMunn said. “They’re not supposed to be taking advantage of the people.”

We obtained the same court records for surrounding cities. What we found in digging for the past few months is that between 2010 and April of this year, Damascus (population 385) got more than $2.25 million dollars in fines and fees just from speeding and unsafe driving tickets. Greenbrier, which is 12 times the size, brought in just under $740,000 — a third of Damascus’ amount. Clinton, which is still three times larger and on the same highway, brought in roughly $300,00 for speeding and unsafe driving tickets. So, based on the court’s own records, Damascus, the smallest city, has generated the largest revenue for speeding and unsafe driving citations.

According to Hiland, he’s not aware of anyone ever having pulled the financial data to look at the revenues the department generated.

“You see it as an abuse of authority?” we asked McMunn.

“Gestapo police tactics is what I call it. And I don’t have no use for it,” he said.

According to Hiland, if the Arkansas State Police Investigation reveals numbers that violate the law, there could be two sanctions Hiland could impose. One would be to bar the police department from patrolling the highway at all. The other would be that any revenue generated from the citations written on the highway moving forward would go to a local school district. According to Highland, there’s no retroactive resolution for those whose tickets were written in violation of the limits or any refund options.