What We Do For You

Bella Vista Police department offers several programs outside of our general patrol and investigative duties to assist the residents of our city and help maintain the community-wide feeling of safety enjoyed by those who live here. 

Operation Good Morning
If you live alone, you can feel safe at home with help from the Bella Vista Police Department. Operation Good Morning is a program that will generate an automated phone call each morning to members at a designated time of his or her choosing. If the member answers the phone, the system will register that as a completed call for that day. If not, the system will alert dispatch, and a dispatcher will follow up with the member.

OGM is available to anyone, no matter the age, free of charge.

  • You decide what time you prefer to receive a call, any time from 5 to 10 a.m. daily. Preferred times do not have to be on the hour or half-hour.
  • You will be called seven days a week.
  • If you don’t answer your phone, the computer will call you a second time. If you still don’t answer, the computer sends a report to a dispatcher, who will try to call you. If you still don’t answer, the dispatcher will send a police officer to find out what’s wrong.
For more information or to sign up, call 479-855-8030 or email bgoodwin@bellavistaar.gov.

Project Lifesaver of Benton County
Project Lifesaver’s mission is to find lost children and adults who have wandered away from home. These people may wander because they have diseases or conditions such as autism, Down syndrome, Alzheimer’s or other mental disorders.

How it works:
  • Project Lifesaver’s loved ones — adults or children — wear radio signal transmitters on the wrist or around the neck
  • When someone is reported lost or missing, police officers use radio signal tracking devices to locate the transmitter. Police are typically able to locate a person in 30 minutes or less.
  • The longer a person is lost, the farther they can wander and the greater the risk of injury. Caregivers are instructed through the program not to hesitate to call police immediately when a loved one cannot be located.
  • Clients pay a one-time $100 fee to join the program, which is the only cost involved. Program volunteers make monthly visits to families to change batteries and check logs.
For more information about the Project Lifesaver program or to volunteer, call 479-855-2715.

Neighborhood Watch
PD-Neighborhood-Watch-225x300Bella Vista is home to about 30 Neighborhood Watch organizations. The Bella Vista Police Department assists in forming these Neighborhood Watch groups by distributing training materials and signs available for your neighborhood.

The Police Department will also host a training session for groups, which consists of tips for observation, reporting and personal safety. We also maintain an e-mail list of block captains to facilitate relaying information to individual groups.

If your neighborhood would like to form a Neighborhood Watch, contact Captain Tim Cook by calling 479-855-3771 or email tcook@bellavistaar.gov.

Vacation House Watch
Bella Vista Police Department offers a free service to monitor residents’ homes while they are away on vacation. Register online here or call 479-855-8030 to leave information, including your name, address, dates of your vacation, and other information such as whether you leave a light on or if cars will be parked in your driveway. You will also be asked to provide a phone number in case of an emergency.

Patrol officers will be given the information, and then when they aren’t busy answering calls, they will patrol your street and check your home.

Drug Take Back
IMG_6918Drug Take Back is a program in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration, which provides a safe disposal of unused or expired medications. By disposing of prescription or over-the-counter medications correctly, you can keep medicines out of children or teenagers’ reach and protect the environment.

Put your prescription or over-the-counter meds in a sealed bag, and then place them in the Bella Vista Police Department’s green Drug Take Back, located just inside the door behind the flags in front of the department at 2483 Forest Hills Blvd. The box is not inside the main entrance, but rather the first door to the left of the main entrance.

Needles or other sharp objects are not allowed inside the box.

Drug box locationTO DISPOSE OF SHARPS: Throw full, sealed and labeled sharps containers in your regular trash. If you do not have a specified sharps container, putsharps in a dense plastic container with a lid, such as a laundry detergent bottle or plastic coffee can (NO MILK JUGS) and seal the lid with duct tape. Write "SHARPS" clearly visible on all sides of the container and put in your regular trash.

The police department stores the medications in a secure location until they can be destroyed properly. You may drop off your medicines during times the door is unlocked to the public —  7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday - Friday and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

For more information on this initiative, visit http://www.artakeback.org.

Car Seat Inspections and Installations
We have certified car seat technicians available to assist you with your child's seat. Call the department's non-emergency line at 479-855-3771 to make an appointment to have your child's car seat inspected or installed, free of charge.

Smart 911
Smart 911 is a free supplement to your local 911 service.
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Establish a profile with Smart 911 and you will be able to provide additional details about your home and family to first responders. By providing pertinent information before an emergency happens,first responders will know necessary details — such as drug allergies, medical conditions, children, special needs family members or invalids in the home — before they arrive on scene. In the event of an emergency, callers may be unable to provide these details to responders.
Today, cell phones make over 70 percent of calls made to 911. When you call 911 from your cell phone, it relays to dispatchers your approximate location, not your address. Smart 911 allows you to link you cell phone number to your address to provide emergency personnel an exact location.

Smart 911 is private and secure. You control the amount of information provided and the information is only available for a limited time to emergency personnel when you call 911.

SIGN UP HERE

Benton County Alert (BC Alert)
BCALERT_forweb2-300x108BC Alert is a countywide notification system allowing police, fire and other government officials to contact subscribers with important information during an emergency or crisis.

Alerts for emergency situations, such as weather events or missing children, can be sent by email, text or phone call, at the subscriber’s preference.

SIGN UP HERE

Shop with a Cop
Since 2007, Bella Vista Police officers have been participating in Shop with a Cop, a program to help under-privileged children have a better Christmas.

Shop with a copThe Bella Vista Fraternal Order of Police raises money for the annual event, held each December. Each child selected from Cooper Elementary School and Gravette Elementary School is allotted money to purchase gifts for themselves and for family members. Each child is accompanied by a uniformed officer on a shopping trip to Walmart in Jane, Mo., and then taken to lunch.

The kids and officers together ride school buses to the store escorted by several police patrol cars with lights and sirens. Officers suggest gift ideas, check sizes and keep track of the money.

In addition to providing holiday cheer, the interaction between officers and students teaches kids that police officers are friendly and helpful.

To donate funds or for more information, visit the FOP Facebook page or call 479-855-3771.