[RossA]

OK, all you armchair quarterbacks, what should the police have done? Chhose one:

(a) Arrest two people for walking into a store - before they do anything - and try them on an informant's testimony?

(b) Arrange a substitute for the cashier? Without the store's permission? With no training on store procedures? Who might be detected as a policeman by the thieves?

(c) Arrest the thieves in the store after they show a weapon? Risking a shootout inside?

Waiting to arrest outside the store seems reasonable to me. And, if the police gave a funny story, it was probably to protect their informant.

[DCBryan1]

You did not give us the most reasonable choice :

(d) Have a SWAT officer in civilian clothing blow the life-long criminal, three time parolee's heart out of his back with a close shotgun blast.

[SouthernFreebird]

I agree with you....we're in deep doo-doo when people start being arrested for what someone else SAYS they are going to do.

To rush in while the robbery is in place could have spooked the robber and caused the death of a number of people.

[csvset]

I think the PD needlessly exposed the clerk to danger. The perp could have blown away the clerk. That happens all too often. The clerk complies with all the robber's demands and is blown away anyways.

[VOA]

(b) Arrange a substitute for the cashier? Without the store's permission?

I guess there just wasn't enough time to call ahead...

North Little Rock police knew hours ahead of time that a convicted robber
and kidnapper planned to hold up a convenience store...

With no training on store procedures?
I'd worry about a cop that couldn't stand in front of a cash register and do a passable
imitation of a clerk.

Besides, do the police not have "police power" to step in and prevent harm to citizens?
Maybe that's just an urban myth.

Who might be detected as a policeman by the thieves?
Well I guess I'm not civic-minded enough to think the police should be using
uninformed clerks as the equivalent of a sheep tied to a stake waiting for a wolf to arrive.

Dale Sides, director of loss prevention for the company, said he knows of
several situations in which police staked out a robbery without notifying the clerk.

"This is really not uncommon," he said. "In fact, clerks are probably better off not knowing."

Nice Labor Day story. Sounds like corporate and the cops have decided on
who's gonna' take the bullet if anything goes wrong.
Just some poor minimum-wage clerk who never knew what was coming.
And all the minor irritation of a wrongful death lawsuit from a relative can
be dispensed with.

And no, I'm not a lawyer.
And, if I was a clerk and the cops said "play along with the robber...", I'd do it
if I had a gun in the drawer. I'd just want to know that if the robber decides to
start shooting the place up...I'd at least have a chance to shoot the b@stard,
even if I was mortally wounded.

[TexasCajun]

...didn't the cops have probable cause to stop this guy from the information given them from their CI?

A stop for questioning and pat-down would have found a fire-arm and BAM!, back to jail for felon in possession of a fire-arm!!

Sounds like a better idea than putting the store clerks life in danger, don't you think?

[RightOnline]

I choose (b). Worse that could have happened was you get a cop who doesn't know how to make change.

[griffin]

How about pulling over the informants car and nail the guys for felon possession of the gun and maybe intent to commit an armed crime in order to send his butt back to prision for parole violation??

No excuse to putting an innocent person in jepordy because these 'police' won't do a felony stop.