Police Department hires first clerk

There's a new face at the Pea Ridge Police Department. Amanda Yeatts is the first clerk of the Pea Ridge Police Department.

Yeatts, the daughter of a former police officer, said law enforcement is "in her blood."

A photograph of her father in uniform and a black-banded police badge sits on her desk. Yeatts said: "Once you're in law enforcement family, it's like blue is in your blood."

Yeatts began Oct. 12 in Pea Ridge.

"We wanted to better serve our community by having someone here to answer questions and to answer the phone during the day if there is a non-emergency," Police Chief Ryan Walker said, adding that residents should still call Benton County Central Communications (CENCOM) for all emergencies.

"She is not a dispatch center," Walker said, explaining that CENCOM records calls and is able to dispatch officers to meet the needs of the residents.

"She is probably more administrative," he said. Walker said she can help if someone needs to talk to the chief or captain, get a copy of a report for which a Freedom of Information form has been filed.

"She honestly does a lot of paper work," Walker said, freeing officers to be on the street.

Yeatts will do all the vehicle inspection logs for the state, take care of the timekeeping and bookkeeping, enter ticket information into the computer, and help get warrants and subpoenas and bond paper work.

"This is a new position that was created," Walker said, explaining that he paid for the position for the remainder of 2015 by using money saved by the department being short handed this year. He said he added the position to the 2016 budget. Of the approximately 30 people who applied for the position, Walker said she was the best qualified.

"We've had several people tell us they're glad the door is open," Walker said.

Yeatts said she is ACIC level 2 certified, allowing her to enter warrants into the ACIC computer system.

"I do like to get involved in community," she said. "Most of the people I know are in law enforcement."

A native of Macon, Ga., Yeatts moved to the northwest Arkansas area three years ago and worked as the clerk for Cave Springs Police Department. Her father, who served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, contracted cancer from Agent Orange. She left Cave Springs to return to Macon to be with her family. Her father died in March 2014 and she returned to Cave Springs to work for the city.

Yeatts and her 13-year-old daughter live in Bentonville.

Yeatts is an honor graduate of Windsor Academy in Macon, earned an associates degree in journalism from Macon State College and is currently taking classes at the University of Arkansas.

She worked for The Telegraph and wrote freelance for the Georgia Family magazine and said she would love to write crime stories. She also worked for a probation office while in Georgia.