Help Texarkana Arkansas police with new community safety program

TEXARKANA, Ark. (KTAL/KMSS) — The Texarkana Arkansas Police Department is partnering with law publications.

They are a company that works with law enforcement agencies to distribute custom books and magazines that are designed to educate and inform the community about threats to health and safety.

“Educational materials, yeah, all about the drugs with examples and the book explains everything, especially vaping and fentanyl, which is the two biggest issues that we have,” said Steve Wallace, a retired police officer and who is helping the department with the community safety program.

The different books cover a wide variety of topics that affect teens, parents, and seniors.

“There’s also the main one which all of our sponsors will be sponsored in, which is like about cyber scam alerts, protecting your identity, that one is a really good one because we have those kind of crimes all the time,” said Kristen Schultz with TAPD, “And then they also do some cute little coloring activity books for kids when we go to our community outreach events.”

The materials would be distributed to local organizations based on what sort of issues the people they serve typically face and at their outreach events.

“A lot of people don’t have access to the computers sometimes, so when we go out to events, they don’t have their phones or computers at hand. So now we have this material in our hands and we can pass it out to them,” said Schultz.

It would all come at no cost to the department because they are seeking community sponsors who would be featured in the books.

“I go to the business and explain what the chief and the department are getting and seeing who can participate, who can partner with the department to help get the materials for the community,” said Wallace, “They’re excited about the material, would like to get some of the material, so the support’s good, but we still need more help.”

They will be out in the community all next week as they continue to seek support for the program. Anyone who is interested in being a sponsor or receiving materials can contact Schultz at (903) 798-3560.