Jonesboro, AR – JonesboroRightNow.com – Jonesboro Police Department Officer Mehki Williams has been with the department for just over five years and works each day to be a “safe space” for his community.
Williams started on the patrol division before serving on D.A.R.E. for two years, although he has now returned to serving on the patrol division. After graduating from Nettleton in 2017, he began working security jobs at hospitals and factories.
It was during a 2020 peaceful Black Lives Matter protest that the idea to join the police first entered Williams’s mind. The protest, which was organized by Williams’ niece and nephew, aimed to create a good understanding of “the relationship between the department and the community,” he explained.
“There’s actually pictures of me, standing right behind the chief as he was talking to the crowd,” Williams said. “As I was listening to a lot of the community talk with the chief, in my head, I was just [thinking], ‘What if I could be that person, that if people don’t feel comfortable to talk with another officer, of if they feel like they can’t go to somebody, they can come to me, ’cause I can be that safe space for them.'”
Photos courtesy of JPD. Williams is wearing a gray shirt and a black head wrap.
Williams said that thought echoed through his mind during the entire protest. He recalled that, as he was speaking to JPD Chief Rick Elliott, who had come outside to speak with protesters, the chief “looks at me and was like ‘If you have what it takes, come and apply.'”
By the next day, Williams had decided to join JPD. From his time working as a security officer, Williams said he already had positive relationships with police and had some familiarity with the job. However, once he went to the police academy, he said it was challenging learning about the police world.
“Security is just basic to where it’s like ‘Hey, you’re in charge of just making sure everything goes smoothly,'” he said. “But as a police officer, you’re not only a police officer. You’re a police officer, you’re a therapist, you’re a social worker, you’re EMS, you’re everything. So, you have to learn all these different phases while being a police officer, because you are the person that when there’s an emergency, they’re gonna depend on you.”
Since the protest, Williams said he feels the department has increased its community engagement and involvement through events and outreach. While the department uses events like Citizens Police Academy and officer outreach to interact with the public, it also uses its social media presence.
JPD’s Facebook page, which has amassed over 119,000 followers since its inception, posts traffic tips, crime updates, and everyday life for its officers. Williams was recently featured on the page, where he could be seen dancing in the department’s hallways after getting an energy drink from the vending machine.
Regarding the video, Williams said that day, he’d had a rough morning. As he went to work at the desk, he realized he had a few dollars in his pocket, enough to get an energy drink.
However, he said the vending machine can be a bit finicky. Williams explained that the previous times he had gone to get a Monster Energy Drink, it had dispensed the wrong flavor, specifically red Monsters.
“As I’m putting these dollars in, I’m just like ‘Lord, please let this be another flavor, don’t let it be red.’ It actually pushed out one of my favorite Monster flavors, the Ultra Vice Guava,” he said. “At that moment in my head, I was just cheering, ‘Yay, today’s not going to be so bad after all.'”
From there, he started dancing. He said when he starts to dance, which he does all the time, he is “in his own world” playing his own music in his head. (He noted that while traveling to JRN for this interview, he was “singing [his] little heart out”).
While dancing, he realized he was being recorded and “tried to play it off,” but later told JPD’s public information official, Sally Smith, about the incident, who posted it to the department’s Facebook. At the time of publication, the video had garnered over 23,000 reactions and been shared almost 2,000 times.
Williams said videos like his help show the human side of police officers, specifically JPD.
“The thing is, we’re all, as police officers, we’re all humans. There’s a lot more people in our department that’s more goofy than me,” he said. “A lot of people don’t get to see that, because it’s the police world. When we post videos like that, we want to show like, ‘Hey, these are humans, too.'”
As for what’s next in his law enforcement career, Williams said he’s letting God lead him regarding where he wants to go or which division he wants to serve in. For now, he’s continuing to serve each day on patrol, taking his calls and helping his community.
“If you feel like you can’t go to anybody, if you see Officer Williams, you can talk to [me], and I’ll make sure that you have the help and resources and guidance that you need,” he said. “At the end of the day, you’re not community to me, you’re my family.”