CENTERTON, Ark. (KFSM) — Police departments in Fayetteville and Centerton now have an extra layer of security for officers.
This comes one month after Officer Stephen Carr was shot and killed in the back parking lot of the Fayetteville Police Station.
“We’ve upgraded the lighting and camera systems and stuff like that so to speak but it's shame that we had to have a terrible event like this shed light on it so to speak,” said Sgt. Anthony Murphy with the Fayetteville Police Department.
27-year-old Stephen Carr was sitting in his patrol vehicle in December when a gunman walked behind his car and shot him multiple times.
Fayetteville police have since performed a "crime prevention through environmental design" (CPTED), which is a report that identifies ways to enhance security.
“We did an assessment on the police department and we established areas where the lighting could be improved where cameras could be improved," said Sgt. Dallas Brashears with FPD. "We also identified some areas around the police department where someone could hide or blind spots and we had those taken out.”
Security upgrades were done to the side, back and front of the station.
“More lighting more coverage out there, having more officers on the scene and some protection out front helps us as well,” Brashears said.
The Centerton Police Department also added enhancements to its station including a new fence around the officer parking lot and several LED lights.
“We already have enough anxieties and as far as doing our jobs and we don’t need to have those same sort of things happening watching over our shoulder all the time when we are at our home base,” said Cody Harper, Centerton Chief of Police.
Both departments agree that the new additions will help increase the safety of officers.