Jonesboro, AR – Jonesboro Right Now – City and county officials gathered Thursday morning to celebrate the groundbreaking of the E911/Real Time Crime Center in downtown Jonesboro.
The facility will be the home of E911 Dispatch operations, as well as staff for the Real Time Crime Center and other public safety operations. Construction will begin next week, with the entire project to be completed by winter 2027.
“This building, once it’s completed, will be more than just four walls and a roof. This building will be the building where lives are saved,” said Ronnie Sturch, Jonesboro E911 director, during the ceremony, which took place at 9:11 a.m. “The untold amount of lives that will be saved from this building, I can’t say.”
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Funding comes from a portion of the $18.5 million in revenue bonds that the city council approved in January 2025, which are financing various capital improvement projects. Of that total, $5.9 million is reserved for the E911/Real-Time Crime Center. Other projects included in the revenue bonds are an expansion of Caraway Road and the installation of new pedestrian- and bike-friendly trails across the city.
The city also received $3.5 million in federal funding to outfit the facility with the proper technology and equipment.
Eventually, the plan is to construct a second police station connected to the building, although Jonesboro Police Department Chief Rick Elliott told JRN that the project is still a long way off.
“Originally, I was trying to get everything consolidated to Caraway Road; others thought that police facilities needed to be downtown, which is fine,” Elliott said. “At this point, 911 center will go here [downtown], then these old buildings will come down to the ground, and whenever the city is in a financial state where we can build a new police complex, then that will take place.”
| READ MORE: Task force recommends Washington Avenue location for E-911 Center
In the meantime, work is continuing to look into a second, temporary facility, with the city having recently received the appraisal for the former Shelter Insurance building on Highland Drive, he said.
Elliott said he hoped the appraisal of that building would be completed before the next Finance Committee meeting. Other locations previously considered include the First United Methodist Church’s youth building and the former Park Place Inn. JPD will, however, continue to operate its current Caraway Road location.
| READ MORE: Discussion Regarding Location for Second Jonesboro Police Station Continues in Committee
According to city data, a total of 122,198 calls were dispatched in 2025, with 93,099 of those non-emergency. A total of 11,651 calls were for the Jonesboro Fire Department, 3,321 were rural fire calls, and 13,550 were medical.
“When 911 is called, no one is thinking about buildings or technology; they’re just simply scared. They need somebody to answer the phone call on the other end, and they want help to arrive as soon as possible,” Jonesboro Mayor Harold Copenhaver said in the ceremony. “Investing in state-of-the-art communications technology and modernizing our operations center is necessary to ensure our first responders have the tools, space and technology to protect our community for generations to come.”
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