Trooper arrested in park

Filing: He asked to watch sex act with undercover detectives

FORT SMITH — The commander of Arkansas State Police Troop H was charged Thursday with misdemeanor loitering after being accused of asking undercover Fort Smith detectives to perform a sex act while he watched.

State pol i ce Ca p t . Bryan Davis, 51, who is listed as Steven Bryan Davis in the charge filed in Fort Smith District Court, was placed on paid administrative leave after his arrest Tuesday afternoon, said Bill Sadler, state police spokesman. Davis was released from custody the same day he was arrested.

A news release from Sebastian County Prosecuting

Attorney Dan Shue on Thursday said Davis is to be arraigned on the charge at 9 a.m. Sept. 8. If convicted of the Class C misdemeanor, Davis could be sentenced to up to 30 days in jail and fined up to $500.

Loitering is defined as unlawfully lingering or remaining in a public place for the purpose of engaging or soliciting another person to engage in prostitution or deviate sexual activity.

A Fort Smith police report said two detectives in the street crimes unit, a man and a woman, were conducting a random check for sexual activity in the city’s parks Tuesday afternoon. Driving

in an unmarked vehicle, they pulled into the parking area of a riverfront walking trail north of downtown Fort Smith where they saw a parked pickup occupied by a man later identified as Davis, the report said.

As the two detectives drove through the parking area, Davis flashed his vehicle’s headlights at them, a recognized signal of someone wanting to make contact for sexual activity in the park, the report said. The detectives also could tell Davis was watching pornography on a computer in his pickup, the report said. He was not in uniform, the report said.

The detectives parked, and Davis approached them, the report said. He proposed watching the man and woman engage in oral sex to stimulate himself, according to the report.

When he got into the detectives’ car, one of them showed him a badge and they arrested him, the report said.

Davis has been commander of Troop H since May of 2014, Sadler said. He joined the state police as a law enforcement officer in May 1990. Before that, he worked for the department as a civilian, beginning in December 1987, Sadler said.

Troop H covers Crawford, Franklin, Logan, Scott and Sebastian counties.

Davis