LOWELL -- Gov. Asa Hutchinson dedicated the new headquarters for Troop L of the Arkansas State Police on Friday before an audience that largely consisted of grateful community leaders, law enforcement officers and members of criminal justice system.
The $14 million headquarters includes a branch office of the State Crime Laboratory, which examines evidence and tests suspected illegal drugs. Every trip to take such evidence to the lab in Little Rock took an entire working day for the officer of the law enforcement agency sending the evidence, according to almost every official who spoke at Friday's event and agency directors interviewed afterwards. Such transport is a legal requirement to make sure the evidence arrives without tampering, they said.
The distance from the Washington County Sheriff's's Office in Fayetteville, for instance, to the state Crime Lab in Little Rock is 186 miles one-way.
"I don't know a resident of Northwest Arkansas who wants a police officer on the road to or from Little Rock rather than solving a crime," Hutchinson told the 120 attendees at the ceremony. The headquarters is near the West Monroe Avenue and Interstate 49 interchange.
The 46,035-square-foot building replaces the troop headquarters in Springdale that was so small, "they had to hold troop meetings at a church or a school," said Col. Bill Bryant, director of the Arkansas State Police. The troop had to lease space in other buildings to house its criminal investigation division and other sections, he said.
Kermit Channell, director of the State Crime Lab, said the facility is not just a boon for Northwest Arkansas. The lab expands capacity and will help reduce a statewide backlog. More than a third of drugs and similar chemical tests statewide come from the Northwest Arkansas region, he said.
Also, experts can be stationed in Northwest Arkansas, meaning staff in Little Rock can spend more time working there rather than travelling back and forth when called to testify in trials, Channell said.
Washington County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett and his Benton County counterpart Nathan Smith attended Friday's event. They raised the same points about the statewide and local benefits.
"With all the growth in Northwest Arkansas, this part of the state was overloading the crime lab in Little Rock," Durrett said. Smith said the facility will make both police and court operations in the region much more efficient.
The governor thanked state Rep. Jana Della Rosa, R-Rogers, and Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, for their support getting the measure to pay for the headquarters through the Legislature. Both legislators thanked the rest of the region's legislative delegation and the community at large for their strong support of the project.
"It was an honor to run this bill," Della Rosa said in her remarks.
Hester concurred, "For me, the most important thing about this is to help bring swift and certain justice for victims and victims' families.
NW News on 01/25/2020