Prosecuting Attorneys and County Sheriffs are elected officials in Arkansas. Prosecutors must be nonpartisan, and are elected in a nonpartisan Judicial General Election in the Spring. Sheriff candidates may be partisan, and partisan candidates must first win their party’s nomination in a Spring preferential primary, before moving on to the November General Election.

Prosecuting Attorneys

Prosecutors are the government officials charged with investigating and prosecuting crimes. They have discretion to decide whether a person is charged with a felony or misdemeanor, and whether juveniles are treated as adults. Prosecutors:

• make recommendations on bail and pretrial detention,

• decide what evidence is shared with defendants,

• set the terms of plea bargains, and

• make recommendations on the severity of sentences.

The duty of the prosecuting attorney is to make sure offenses committed against the public are rectified pursuant to the commencement of criminal prosecutions. The prosecuting attorney, however, must be fair and unbiased. They must avoid any conduct that would deprive the defendant of any constitutional or legal right.

County Sheriff

The County Sheriff is responsible for law enforcement on a county level, ensuring that all local, state, and federal laws are followed. He or she performs a role similar to that of a police chief in a municipal department, managing a department in charge of protecting people and property and maintaining order. The sheriff has jurisdiction over any unincorporated areas of his or her county and can set arrest priorities, drive criminal investigations, execute search warrants, conduct asset forfeitures, and establish use of force policies. Finally, the sheriff runs detention facilities, for example, the Pulaski County Detention Center.

Go HERE for more detailed information from the U of A Cooperative Extension.