Longtime Mississippi police officer and crime prevention champion Doug Arp passed away over the weekend.
Arp, who served as a law enforcement officer in both Port Gibson and Vicksburg, was best known for his unconventional methods of pushing for a crime-free society and honoring fallen officers.
According to The Vicksburg Post, the police officer performed unique stunts for National Night Out, a community policing awareness-raising event. The highlight of all stunts involved Arp living in a police cruiser suspended 60 feet in the air by a crane and spending four days in a commercial icebox.
“Doug’s antics were solely for the purpose of attracting attention so people would hear the message of crime prevention,” Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace told the local newspaper. “Doug loved people and really understood the value of communicating with the public about crime prevention.”
Pace joined Arp in 2010 in a march to promote awareness of sexual crimes against women. The two men donned women’s shoes during the entire walk.
Other stunts included Arp spending weeks in a dumpster, a mall water fountain, atop a billboard, and in a hole dug into the ground.
Following his retirement from the police force, Arp spent much of his time devoted to honoring fallen officers. Arp worked to have the markers placed on the graves of officers who had fallen in the line of duty — most notably Warren County Deputy Jasper Luckett who was shot and killed in 1943.
Arp also worked diligently to have local fallen officers added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.
No funeral arrangements have been announced for Arp at this time.
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