Former Arkansas police chiefs prison escape offers unique challenges: experts

The former Arkansas police chief who escaped prison on Sunday may have an “edge” compared to other escapees due to his past in law enforcement, experts say.Former Gateway Police Department Chief Grant Hardin, 56, escaped from the North Central Unit, a medium-security prison, Sunday afternoon in Calico Rock, according to the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC).Nicknamed the “Devil in the Ozarks,” Hardin was serving decades in prison for murder and rape.Eric Brown, a 24-year U.S.

Army Special Forces veteran and CEO of Imperio Consulting, told Fox News Digital that a former police chief like Hardin “has a working knowledge of law enforcement procedures, patrol routines and how search operations are typically structured.”“That gives him an initial edge.He knows how law enforcement thinks,” Brown told Fox News Digital.Law enforcement officials “will likely lean on geo-fencing, license plate readers, and known associate surveillance,” Brown added.“If he’s on foot, dogs, drones and thermal imaging tighten the noose,” Brown said.

“Establishing a perimeter means thinking like the fugitive, assessing terrain, choke points and logical escape routes.Officials are watching for movement: stolen vehicles, property break-ins, supply thefts, even unusual local chatter.

The key is pattern disruption.”It took less than 30 minutes for prison officials to notice that Hardin had disappeared from prison.Photos that the Stone County Sheriff’s Office posted to social media show Hardin wearing an ADC-style uniform during his escape through a sally port, though ADC communications director Rand Champion said the uniform he was wearing was not official.Angelo Brown, Ph.D., assistant professor of criminology at Arkansas State University, similarly told Fox News Digital that law enforcement officials will likely be using drones and infrared camera technology to search heavily wooded areas in Stone County, where Hardin escaped, which is located just east...