In the police headquarters in North Little Rock, the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafts in the corridors; it is usually the stench of marijuana.

Of course, this is not police involvement, but one of the smelly signs of the current police headquarters at 200 W. Pershing Blvd. Built in the 1960s, it is outdated.

The ventilation is poor and the area is small. Both the former mayor and the current police chief use the word "dilapidated" to describe it.

But with the grand opening ceremony in New York City today, the opening of the North Little Rock Justice Center, this situation will soon change.

"The problem we have is like in our building now, we brought a new load of marijuana, and everyone in the building smelled it," said Captain Jay Kovac.

On Wednesday, when Kovach explained that the stench of marijuana from the evidence room was “not a good thing,” a tour group composed almost entirely of city workers laughed.

"With this negative pressure system, marijuana can be on the other side of this door, and you won't smell it in the hallway," Kovac said, explaining a feature of the new headquarters.

The 82,000-square-foot building cost approximately $26 million and was funded by a sales tax approved by voters in 2017.

The Judicial Center is located at 2600 Yangshu Street and will also house the Municipal Court and a 5,000 square foot community meeting room. It is located at the former site of the Arkansas National Guard Fisher Armory and North Little Rock School District Administration Building.

As of Wednesday, workers were still installing floors, and the building was almost empty except for dozens of unopened cardboard boxes.

Nevertheless, the glamorous new home of the North Little Rock Police Station finally saw the finish line.

Kovac said that due to construction delays, officials will not move into the justice center until the first quarter of 2022. He added that supply chain issues have delayed the delivery of materials, namely flooring. Substandard soil also delayed the construction by two and a half months.

Currently, North Little Rock Police are distributed in nine buildings throughout the city, which means that some departments, staff and training facilities are distributed in several different locations.

North Little Rock Police Chief Patrick Thessing said: “The biggest benefit for us is that we can operate more efficiently because we are not all scattered.”

The city will keep four substations open.

Kovach said the city’s main police station at 200 W. Pershing Blvd. and the police administration building at Main St. 2525 will be transferred to the North Little Rock School District.

The police building at 800 Main St. and the detective department at West 29th Street will be closed.

The former mayor of North Little Rock, Joe Smith, said his main achievement was the construction of a judicial center. He has held dozens of public meetings to lobby voters to raise their taxes to pay for the new facilities.

"We put together a program, slides and pictures to show how dilapidated our facility is," Smith said. "It took me 44 times-staff calculations-I gave 44 speeches and 44 speeches-from churches to community groups-to show them how their police officers work."

In 2017, voters approved a 1% sales tax. Half of the sales tax increase is dedicated to the construction of new facilities for police, fire protection, courts, and restoration of urban streets.

The Justice Center will provide some new benefits for the city’s police, such as more space, modern furnishings, larger dining areas and gyms. It will also provide updated space for information technicians, rooms for officials repairing aerial drones, and closed-door compartments for detectives.

"You go to a place, you walk in, everything is tapped by pipes, you know, there are wires everywhere; it looks unprofessional," Saishin said of the old headquarters. "This is a manifestation of our [police department] professionalism, and we want to show this to people who want to work here."

The justice center has long glass windows that provide plenty of natural light, an independent entrance for the public to improve security and large rectangular columns.

Located south of Interstate 40, many rooms have views of the city and highway. Smith said he hopes the police headquarters will be very eye-catching for tourists who often stay in nearby hotels.

"It's almost in the city center-very obviously-that is the most important thing," Smith said. "I hope the citizens of our city can see it every day... so they can see where their money has gone."

Then came the smell of marijuana confiscated during the arrest. Kovach said the drug, known for its strong odor, produces a bad smell when carried in large quantities.

Kovac said that the property room of the Justice Center was designed to be "negative pressure," which means the smell cannot escape. This is something that can have an impact, because inhaling some of the substances recovered during the arrest may be harmful.

"Not only the smell of marijuana, but also fentanyl-something of this nature-there are too many unknowns, we don't know what hurt us," the captain said.

Another problem that the Justice Center can help solve is the department’s long-standing efforts to recruit new police officers, who often choose to work in larger departments. Smith and Thessing stated that substandard facilities disgusted potential new employees.

"Our police department [state] is terrible, and we are having trouble recruiting, so I think we need to do something," Smith said.

Print Title: The Police's Complex Breath of Fresh Air

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