El Dorado, Arkansas: A Corrupt Local Government in Crisis and a Global Warning for Communities Fighting State Power
El Dorado, Arkansas: A Corrupt Local Government in Crisis and a Global Warning for Communities Fighting State Power
Across the world, communities confronting police violence, state secrecy, and institutionalized corruption recognize the pattern. Whether in Manila or Johannesburg, Belfast or Bogotá, or in the rural American South, power behaves the same way when left unchallenged. It conceals wrongdoing, shields police from accountability, obstructs public oversight, and expands surveillance while shrinking democratic access.
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| El Dorado Police Det. Shelly Rowland (third from left) with a $1200 check. Pictured from left to right are: Logan Owens, Ernie Garcia, Shelly Rowland, Jason Dumas, Damon Gray, Clayton Gadberry, Jarod Primm and Trey Phillips. |
The city of El Dorado, Arkansas is a small municipality that now reveals this global pattern in stark detail. What began as routine public records inquiries has exposed a local government culture shaped by concealment, disinformation, selective prosecution, and the misuse of police technology. The scandals documented in El Dorado echo a worldwide truth. Authoritarian systems do not begin at the federal level. They begin in local governments that discover they can operate without transparency.
This exposé presents the full picture, using verifiable sources to show how one small city demonstrates the universal danger of unchecked state power.
A Government Already Distrusted: The Odd Prosecution of Former Mayor Veronica Smith Creer
El Dorado entered its current period of instability long before the latest scandals. In 2024, former mayor Veronica Smith Creer was oddly arrested and charged with theft of property after responsibly redirecting funds from the dissolved Crime Stoppers nonprofit to another community organization serving victims of violent crime because she believed her organization was crippled with corruption and could not fulfill their mission to find urgently missing people. Reports confirm that she “withdrew all twenty three thousand five hundred forty four dollars in the account in the form of a cashier’s check” and had it redirected months later to Parents United Against Youth Violence.¹ ² ³ ⁴
Despite a complex set of circumstances, Smith Creer became the only person criminally targeted, even though others involved in the chain of decisions were not prosecuted. One local analysis asked why this former mayor was singled out and noted that “a former mayor was prosecuted while others who played central roles were not” which raised serious concerns about selective enforcement.⁵
This selective targeting set the stage for a broader crisis of legitimacy. When governments apply punitive power unevenly, communities lose trust, and corruption becomes easier to hide.
READ: When the Law Is Not Applied Equally: Questions Raised by the Prosecution of El Dorado's Former Mayor
A Police Department with No Guardrails: Flock LPR Abuse and Mass Surveillance Without Policy
In February 2026, Chief of Police Ricky Roberts released a memorandum responding to a community complaint about misuse of the Flock Safety license plate reader system. The findings were alarming.
His investigation confirmed that one vehicle plate was “searched in the Flock Safety Camera system twenty eight times over nine days in April 2025.” Another search on April 5, 2025 was conducted across “six thousand one hundred eighty six networks.” Such figures indicate unregulated data sharing and a likely violation of the intended purpose of the technology.⁶
Roberts admitted that “the previous administrator of the El Dorado Police Department did not have a Flock Safety Camera policy in place.”⁶
This means that the department operated a mass surveillance system with no written policy at all. The police had full access to a multijurisdictional surveillance network with no documented controls, no written guidelines, and no transparency.
Although Roberts issued a written warning to the officer involved and noted that “excessive searches of the Flock Safety Camera system will not be tolerated under my administration,” he also allowed the officer to be formally exonerated.⁶
The underlying problem was not one officer. It was an entire system of surveillance without public oversight.
A Department Marked by Misconduct: Internal Suspensions and the Brady List
In addition to the LPR scandal, the Arkansas Attorney General released information confirming that El Dorado Police Department officers had prior misconduct involving “credibility, truthfulness, bias, use of excessive force, or other acts bearing upon their honesty or fitness to serve as a law enforcement officer.”⁷
These records were classified as employee evaluation files, and the AG confirmed that they met the legal standard for public release. This means that multiple officers in El Dorado were formally disciplined for behavior that could compromise legal proceedings.
The El Dorado Police Department also appears in the national Brady List, which tracks officers with histories of dishonesty, public complaints, or misconduct that could disqualify them as credible witnesses. According to the Brady database, it “is the definitive Potential Impeachment Disclosure Database of police misconduct, public complaints, decertification, do not call status, and more.”⁸
This further confirms that the issues inside the department were not isolated or incidental. They were systemic.
Community Fear and Identity Abuse: Police Impersonation Reports in 2025
In June 2025, the El Dorado Police Department issued a public safety alert after several residents reported being approached by a man impersonating a police officer while driving a black unmarked SUV. Authorities confirmed the vehicle was traced to a decommissioned unit from another agency. Local reporting notes that the department “made a public information announcement following multiple reports of a person impersonating a police officer in the area.”⁹
Police impersonation incidents almost always signal a breakdown in public confidence. When residents cannot distinguish between legitimate authority and fraudulent authority, that community faces an immediate threat to public safety. Impersonation concerns rarely arise in cities where police transparency and community trust are stronger.
Judicial Integrity Undermined: Union County Evidence Tampering Arrest
Beyond the El Dorado Police Department itself, the integrity of the region’s criminal justice system suffered another blow when Union County Circuit Clerk Cherry Govan was arrested for twice altering judges’ notes in CourtConnect, the state’s legal records system. This constitutes felony evidence tampering under Arkansas law and raises serious questions about court transparency and prosecutorial fairness.⁷
Since El Dorado police rely on Union County courts for arrests and prosecutions, this scandal further erodes confidence in the honesty and reliability of legal processes in the region.
FOIA as a Battlefield: The Five Thousand Dollar Barrier and Illegal Obstruction
The most recent scandal concerns the city’s direct obstruction of public transparency. After receiving a lawful FOIA request, Mayor Paul Choate with the backing of El Dorado City attorney Robert Rushing, demanded an illegal payment of five thousand dollars before providing the records. His statement read: “send a cashiers check in the amount of five thousand dollars. Upon receipt we will move forward with your request.”⁸
He justified this by claiming the need to hire temporary staff. Arkansas FOIA law forbids charging for staff time or scanning. The requester responded: “your demand for a five thousand dollar cashier’s check is therefore an illegal fee and is rejected in full.”⁸
Despite admitting that key records such as the general ledger and check registers already existed electronically, Mayor Choate instructed the requester to appear in person, writing that citizens were “welcome to come to city hall and inspect the files.”⁸
Arkansas FOIA is explicit. The requester chooses the format. Refusing to provide electronic records is an unlawful obstruction of public access.
A Global Pattern Seen in One Small City
Taken together, these scandals reveal a coherent pattern:
- Selective prosecution of political figures
- Surveillance technology used without policy
- Police misconduct serious enough to warrant AG review
- Officers listed in national credibility databases
- Police impersonation incidents that reflect community fear
- Evidence tampering in the regional court system
- Illegal FOIA obstruction by the mayor
- Contradictory statements and refusal to comply with transparency laws
This pattern mirrors authoritarian practices seen globally. When power is unregulated at the local level, systemic abuses become standard practice.
El Dorado shows how quickly a government can shift from routine public administration to entrenched secrecy and unaccountable behavior. Communities everywhere can learn from this example.
The struggle against police and state power begins in towns and small cities where leadership does not expect international scrutiny.
El Dorado is now receiving that scrutiny.
ALL Power to The People.
References
- https://corruptionsucks.blogspot.com/2025/12/when-law-is-not-applied-equally.html
- https://ag-opinions.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2024-031.pdf
- https://corruptionsucks.blogspot.com/2025/12/when-law-is-not-applied-equally.html
- https://corruptionsucks.blogspot.com/2025/12/when-law-is-not-applied-equally.html
- https://corruptionsucks.blogspot.com/2025/12/when-law-is-not-applied-equally.html
- https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbs1sNYl6jSa2dPoMtqAFJ0ERukTwS4Cd0Ui3zClnEJBZrat83otDkgqKfInrKZqZbjoi82H6DL6utkHBVpUkuAg5PJrLaG84UVOlWjPzZZxkJIuq9rGMiDcIbsX13b_uAyv_e5kyqr7PF-Zq_zQkG7GfsP2uvX-oKb7PROOClmoGsmcgMvONA1M6ETvU/s862/Screenshot_76.jpg
- https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSvlXBV0ogOhvkbV8YTEDGCQIG3GWiVm4QZ37fwW03fpLf0wJnL5TlRNdejxoguLCPiZ2TMQyC0ui9UI3llTjDib_W9CTaqV-rbjZ4Y7RUOBAfDKuo81APGVUI8Mt3MSLLIOenlbdm2Q98K-sKPGBfLi3Jyyo0YjL4xykWLTWOqchx65XmWPwLadxAqSw/s698/Screenshot_59.jpg
- https://ag-opinions.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026-017.pdf
- https://www.arkansaspublicnotices.com/foia-request-correspondence-choate-mayor-2026
- https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/el-dorado-county-deputy-impersonator-bear-spray/
- https://corruptionsucks.blogspot.com/2025/12/when-law-is-not-applied-equally.html
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