Police chief reports lower 2025 crime totals, highlights camera-aided recovery and $3.5 million federal grant

Police Chief Elliott presented the Jonesboro Police Department’s 2025 crime statistics to the Public Safety Council Committee, saying the numbers are down following a 2024 peak in major crimes against persons. Elliott said long-term violent-crime counts have fluctuated between about 80 and 120 in the past 19 years while Jonesboro’s population has grown to "over 15,000." He emphasized the department files monthly reports to the FBI and that the data are publicly accessible.

When asked what explains the downward trend, Chief Elliott said there is no single cause: national trends show decreases in many jurisdictions, and locally it is a combination of community engagement, tips and new tools. "If you see something, say something," he said, and credited community reporting and technology such as cameras and license-plate readers with improving solvability.

Elliott described a recent successful recovery where city camera systems with AI pedestrian detection helped officers locate a teenage girl who left home at about 1:27 a.m. in freezing conditions and was tracked across town to a Walgreens before being reunited with her family. "With the AI technology in this particular system, it identified a pedestrian," he said, describing how staff pieced together camera data over several hours.

He also told the committee the city received a $3.5 million federal grant that will fund technology upgrades and support the build-out of a new real-time crime center and dispatch center to improve operational efficiency.

Committee members thanked the chief and did not record further action; no public comments were offered during the public-comment period.

The report was informational; the committee did not vote on new policies or direct additional staff follow-up during the meeting.