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by Steven a. Coppinger (Author)
Word that a new state police force for Arkansas was being considered was widely reported in the state's newspapers in the spring of 1935. Historians of the Arkansas State Police (ASP) have provided rich detail on the founding of the Department and its evolution over the past eight decades. However, little information about the three men selected by Arkansas Governor J.M. Futrell to serve as the first State Police Commissioners - William Vernon Tompkins of Prescott, John Powell Woods, Sr., of Fort Smith and Samuel Locke Cooke of Marvell - exists. Highlighting the genesis of the State Police Department and the work of its small State Ranger force, Steven A. Coppinger shares previously unknown biographical information about the first three Commissioners and chronicles how they worked together with the original State Rangers to organize and establish Arkansas' State Police Department.
