The Jonesboro Finance Administration Council Committee on an afternoon session read and moved to forward Resolution 25-217, authorizing a three‑year agreement with Axon Incorporated to provide dispatch-assist communication services for Jonesboro Emergency Services.

Under the resolution read into the record, the city would pay $211,565 in the first year and $199,665 in each of the two subsequent years for a package that includes automated handling of non‑emergency calls, real‑time language translation and live transcription of calls and radio traffic. The resolution also notes the Craighead County 911 board has approved the agreement and that Axon appears on a NASBO state contract list, which the resolution cites as the reason bidding was not required.

City staff explained to the committee that the system’s call-taking assist will handle incoming non‑emergency lines and automatically reroute or transfer calls to the appropriate department or to 911 dispatchers when calls meet 911 criteria. In the committee exchange, the administration’s representative described the translation and transcription features as real time and said dispatchers will see translated text in front of them as calls are received. “It will answer a 100% of those calls,” the administration representative said of calls routed to the non‑emergency lines.

Committee members asked about reliability and backup power. City staff said the dispatch center is backed by an uninterrupted power supply that holds systems for roughly 30 minutes while a generator starts (they reported the generator typically comes online within about 10–15 seconds). Staff also estimated implementation of the call‑taking assist side would take roughly 30–60 days for technicians to configure routing and system preferences.

The administration said the city expects to discontinue some existing paid services—such as the monthly third‑party translation subscription and a text‑to‑911 service—after full deployment, and suggested the consolidated system would yield annual budget savings over the mix of services it replaces. The committee was asked to record its vote to forward the resolution to full council; the transcript records the motion and call for votes but does not include roll‑call tallies in the provided excerpt.

If approved by the council, the resolution authorizes the mayor and city clerk to execute the agreement and directs staff to carry out the contract’s terms. The finance committee discussion closed with staff saying they expect to be among the first Arkansas jurisdictions to deploy the complete package.