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A sergeant in the Pine Bluff Police Department’s Narcotics/Vice Unit had one of the most sensitive jobs in the building: handling cash that officers use to make controlled buys from street-level dealers. According to Arkansas State Police, Sgt. Charles Clark treated that money like his own.
The charges
Clark, 45, was charged September 3 with breaking or entering and abuse of public trust – both felonies – along with misdemeanor theft of property. Investigators say he took $1,000 from the Narcotics/Vice Unit while he was still employed by the department. That cash is what narcotics teams call buy money: serialized, budgeted funds meant to come back with drugs, evidence, and a case file. When it comes back missing instead, the whole unit’s paperwork starts to smell.
How it unraveled
Court records show the trail started in June, when the 11th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney asked the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division to look into a possible theft at PBPD. But here’s the part that should raise every eyebrow in Jefferson County: by the time that request went out, Clark had already resigned from Pine Bluff police – and accepted a position with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Think about that sequence. The money goes missing. The sergeant quietly walks away from a department he’d served for years. And before anyone has officially connected him to it, he’s got a fresh law enforcement job lined up one desk over at the county courthouse.
The surrender
On September 3, Clark surrendered to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office – the very agency that had just hired him. He was booked, given a $2,500 bond, and walked out the same day. If he had started working there as a deputy, this was booking paperwork handled by his own new employer.
State Police say the investigation is ongoing, and no additional information will be released at this time. That leaves two big questions hanging. First: how long was the $1,000 gone before anyone counted it – and what does that say about the unit’s internal checks? Second: why is he charged with breaking or entering at the department he used to work inside of? That count usually means prosecutors believe he got into a space he had no right to be in – a locked evidence room, perhaps, accessed after hours. None of that is confirmed yet. It’s the kind of detail an affidavit eventually answers.
What’s next
Clark has not entered a plea, and no court date has appeared on the public docket yet. This story will be updated as the case moves.
If a sergeant can pocket buy money and quietly land a new badge before anyone notices, the question writes itself: how many departments would have caught this at all?
