FORREST CITY, Ark. (KTHV) -- Should police target parents if their child breaks the law? Forrest City police are holding parents accountable. In an effort to decrease juvenile delinquency, they're arresting parents for neglect.
In four years, Reecy Dancer has dealt with shoplifting and robbery at Hibbett Sports in Forrest City.
"You start thinking about your loved ones especially when there is a gun held to your head," says Dancer.
Often they're teenagers holding that gun and they dash out of the store.
"They'll run into the apartments or small residential area behind those apartments. There are fields back there and police can't catch up to them," says Dancer as he points to behind his store.
In the last couple months, police officers like Eric Varner have stepped it up.
"After the third arrest, we file the paperwork; we arrest the parent," says Officer Varner.
Since November, the Forrest City police department has arrested 11 parents and 75 juveniles. They've recently started enforcing a 1963 law, "neglect of minor resulting in delinquency." It's an old law, but the department has a new boss, Chief Edward Reynolds.
"The way these things have been attacked historically, have not always worked," says Chief Reynolds. "You know as well as I, that a lot of the problems that these kids are dealing with are more often than not a direct reflection on what they are experiencing at home."
UALR Criminal Justice professor Jeff Walker says it's hard to determine if parents are to blame.
"Parents are not always able to control their children. If you're a parent and working two jobs and trying to get by, you may not be able to go to school and pick up your child," says Dr. Walker.
He says the law itself is probably constitutional, but it's how it's enforced.
"If a prosecutor or police gets mad at the parents and say 'I will use this law because you don't control your child', that may be an improper use of the law," says Walker.
In Forrest City, they're only targeting repeat offenders and parents are not being thrown in jail, they're slapped with a $250 fine. Plus, parents and juveniles go through a program where they meet prison inmates.
"You may be familiar with the scared straight model," says Chief Reynolds.
Dancer likes what he's seeing from law enforcement, more patrolling and holding parents accountable, but he does not feel any safer.
"Crime is everywhere. It doesn't matter if it's a small town or big city," says Dancer.
Chief Reynolds says he's getting a lot of positive feedback from the community and he believes this is decreasing juvenile crime. He plans to look at the data in six months. Professor Walker says many states have a similar law, but he doesn't know of any cities enforcing it besides Forrest City.