LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — If you were to take a drive down to Markham Street in Downtown Little Rock, you'd likely notice a new addition – the new Little Rock Police Headquarters.
The Little Rock Police Department is almost completely moved into its brand new building, and it is filled with plenty of upgrades. There's a new records center, more offices, and even things like a gym for officers to work out in.
"Just getting into a new environment, just, it's kind of a breath of fresh air for us," Assistant Chief, Heath Helton said.
He's done a lot of moving recently. Luckily for Helton, he only had to move right across the street.
LRPD gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of their new headquarters on Thursday.
"Our footprint is still here within this community, whether it's the downtown area, over on 12th street, or Southwest or Northwest, any part of the city, we're here," Helton said.
Transparency is the name of the game for the department – and Helton added that they want to be more transparent as they move forward.
"I think it's important for our community to know what we're about, what we're here for, and see what we're doing," Helton said. "Instead of just kind what goes on behind closed doors - hey, we're here."
One of the most important parts of LRPD's new building lies right in the center, and it is where they will house a new state-of-the-art real-time crime center.
The center will allow officers to track crime as it happens, and was actually used to track crimes as they happened during a recent spree of weekend shootings.
"I think it was substantially helpful in the incident," Sgt. Troy Dillard, who oversees the center, said.
While it isn't ready just yet, Dillard gave us a sneak peek into at what the software in the center can do.
"That helps them while they're in route, when that 911 call is done, getting that information," Dillard explained. "We can provide them real-time updates."
Although the building isn't completely finished yet, Helton said the department has still been working hard. As they move forward, they hope to maintain transparency and are ready to put that into action as they get to work.
"It provides us hope that we're moving in the right direction, we're taking the steps to increase our level of transparency, better engage our community and try to have those," Helton said. "And then repair those damages and those relationships and to show that we're here."
Helton and Dillard said they expect that the real-time crime center will be open by the end of the year.