Three Arkansas police chiefs and their departments were among those honored on June 4 when Attorney General Dustin McDaniel hosted the ninth annual Arkansas Missing Children’s Day ceremony at the MacArthur Museum of Military History in Little Rock.

The Missing Children’s Day ceremony is the culmination of a series of safety-awareness initiatives
sponsored by McDaniel’s office in May in observance of Child Safety Month. This particular event provided a format to help keep Arkansas’ missing children in the hearts and minds of our citizenry and to provide support to their searching families.

Chief Kevin Lindsey of the Fort Smith Police Department was on hand to receive the Star of Excellence Award on behalf of his department. The award was created by the attorney general’s office in 2003 to be presented annually at Arkansas Missing Children’s Day to honorees who have made a significant difference in the protection of children. The award was named for a group of Star City High School’s East Lab students who initiated a comprehensive community-wide project to protect children and highlight child safety. Past recipients have included businesses, non-profit
missing children organizations, students groups and law-enforcement agencies.

The Fort Smith Police Department has been a leader in making innovative changes within their agency designed to strengthen their department’s response to a missing child episode.