Hot Springs security officer helps police nab wanted man
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. Dec 30 2017– A Hot Springs man is arrested after embezzling almost $200,000 from a local company.
For Hot Springs police Facebook has become an invaluable tool to help them do their jobs. Their weekly Warrant Wednesday post helps them get information about wanted people out to the public.
“We call it a force multiplier,” says Officer Joey Williams, HSPD. “[Once] we put that information out to the public, we ask for their help and it puts thousands more eyes and ears on the street.”
Since they started doing Warrant Wednesdays in summer of 2016 they’ve had a 96% success rate getting people into custody.
Their most recent Warrant Wednesday arrest was made just an hour and a half after police posted it.
“A security guard that works at our local Garland county library actually saw him on our Facebook page, saw that he was wanted, looked over and he was sitting at a computer in the library,” says Officer Joey Williams.
Police say Randall Morris was wanted for embezzling almost $200,000 from Flossie’s Funnel Cakes, by using the company’s Pay Pal account to transfer money to his personal account.
Police say Morris worked with online accounts for the company since 2008.
“The statute of limitations has run out on some of those thefts, so we actually can’t charge him with some of them because it’s been so long,” says Officer Williams.
Morris pleaded not guilty to felony theft of property charges. He will be back in court in February.
