“The weed of crime bears bitter fruit,” as the saying goes, and the fruits of crime have been bitter indeed since Attorney General Tim Griffin took office in 2023.
Over two short years, Griffin has revamped the attorney general’s office, instating new divisions to help solve and prosecute crime; created units to tackle cold cases and address cybercrime; taken steps to address human trafficking, public corruption and drug abuse in the state; and supported the legislature through the creation and implementation of the Protect Arkansas Act.
That’s just for starters.
“I think it’s going to take some time to see the full measure of what these initiatives can accomplish,” Griffin said. “I’m going to continue to keep the pressure on, and we’re going to stay the course.”
One of Griffin’s first actions as attorney general was to establish two parallel but separate divisions — a special investigative division and a special prosecutions division — to staff the office with seasoned experts who could help address the attorney general’s priorities — priorities that include combatting human trafficking, organized crime, public corruption and financial crime.
“Now we have this capacity in-house with specialized expertise, and we are able to use that not only to track down criminals in our own cases but as a resource to sheriff’s departments, state police departments, working with state police, working with federal law enforcement all over the state,” Griffin said. “That has been a game changer.”
He also built upon the office’s longstanding focus of bringing awareness to missing persons by creating a cold case unit to address cases that have been unresolved for years and even decades.
Tim Griffin
“We happened to have experienced homicide detectives and cold case detectives on staff already, so we were able to take those investigators and build this cold case unit,” Griffin said. “The cold case unit has been very active since its creation and has given hope to a lot of families who are looking for missing loved ones.”
In addition to taking a fresh look at high-profile cases such as the death of 18-year-old Ebby Steppach in Little Rock, the unit has helped provide DNA testing in cases where a body is discovered in a community that may not have the resources to identify it, he said.
“We’re not competing with other law enforcement agencies. We’re a partner,” he added. “Sometimes fresh eyes on evidence can make all the difference, and so we don’t go in and attempt to take someone’s case. We want to work side by side with them.”
Also new to the office is a cybercrime unit, which works to uncover how criminals are using technology and determine how technology can be used to solve cybercrimes such as ransomware and online fraud, not to mention child pornography.
Human trafficking has been a major focus for Griffin, who worked to enact harsher penalties and organized a summit to address the issue soon after taking office.
“We raised that awareness, we worked hard to stiffen penalties, and then we got going on pursuing the criminals,” he said. “Where this has led us is to pursue these illicit sexual massage parlors, which are Chinese, and this has been a big focus of my office.”
During raids on illicit sexual massage parlors across the state, investigators have found Chinese currency, wire transfers to China, and numerous victims, many of whom do not speak English and were brought to the U.S. with the promise of employment but were instead forced into sexual slavery, he said.
“This is going on not only in the bigger cities in Arkansas but small towns,” he added. “It is estimated there are as many illicit Chinese sexual massage parlors in the United States as there are McDonald’s, so this is a really massive problem.”
Election integrity is another priority for the attorney general’s office, he added.
“We want people to have confidence in the voting process, in the election process, and one way you do that is demonstrate that you’re holding lawbreakers accountable,” he said. “You’ve got to follow the rules, and that benefits everybody, and that gives people confidence that their vote matters, and it does.”
The office is also working with federal, state and local agencies on a multipronged approach to combatting illegal drugs. Griffin recently launched the One Pill Can Kill initiative to teach college students about the dangers of fentanyl. Providing rehabilitation opportunities and arresting drug traffickers are also important, he said.
“You’ve got to do it all,” he added. “You’ve got to raise awareness and make it clear to people that you shouldn’t play around with illicit fentanyl, for example. That’s why we have the One Pill Can Kill initiative on college campuses, but at the same time, you’ve got to fight the criminals and ensure they’re locked up for the rest of their lives if they engage in this, particularly as it relates to fentanyl.”
Locking up criminals is an area of particular importance to the attorney general, who pointed to early prison releases as the reason behind a recent spike in violent crime. The state needs a minimum of 5,000 new prison beds to rectify the problem of overpopulation in its prisons, he said, adding that prisoners are most often released due to a lack of space.
He voiced his support for the Protect Arkansas Act, which limits parole eligibility and works to address recidivism.
“Do we need to lock up violent people who would hurt your family and mine? Absolutely. Do we need to help those who are getting out so that they’re equipped to succeed on the outside? Absolutely,” Griffin said. “Those are not incompatible. Those are not in conflict. Those are complementary.”
The new efforts to combat crime at the attorney general’s office are showing great results, he added, but for every criminal caught, there are still many on the streets. For his office, that means it is more important than ever to be proactive in the fight against crime.
“We’ve got a lot more to do,” he said. “Now’s not the time to switch. It’s the time to aggressively keep the pressure on the criminals, and so we will continue to do that.”
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