Since the start of 2014, there have been several felonies in Searcy and the surrounding area.
On Feb. 3, an armed robbery occurred at First Community Bank, on Jan. 24 a shooting and robbery took place in the J.C. Penney parking lot and on Jan. 13 a grandmother was killed and her grandson later arrested for the murder. Arrests have also been made regarding both the bank robbery and the J.C. Penney shooting.
Retired Searcy police lieutenant Roger Pearson believes recent criminal activity can be attributed mainly to the economy.
“There’s nothing really different about the dynamic in Searcy (in the last few years) except for the economy,” Pearson said. “When you have a bad economy you have an increase in crime rate.”
Pearson worked for the Searcy police for 23 years and retired in May 2011. He now attends Harding’s Center for Advanced Ministry Training program and volunteers as a chaplain for the police department.
According to www.neighborhoodscout.com, Searcy has a crime index of 15 out of 100, with 100 being the safest. This means that Searcy is only safer than 15 percent of cities in the U.S. As points of comparison, the crime index is 8 for Chicago, 22 for New York and 1 for Little Rock.
Pearson noted that the Searcy police department has limited capabilities, due in part to financial limits. However, he does not see this as a reason to be worried.
Pearson also credited the overwhelmingly Christian population in Searcy for the safety of the town.
“I can’t say this statistically, but I can relay to you my relationship with officers in other parts of the state: Harding is probably the safest university in the state,” Pearson said. “Harding is very, very good about taking care of their community of their students.”
Searcy Police Department was unavailable for comment.
