The Police department occupies a facility located at 1234 Texas Avenue. The building was constructed over 50 years ago and was not designed to meet the needs of a police building. In recent years, we have had major problems with the infrastructure, including plumbing, HVAC, leaking roof and water drainage issues. About five years ago contractors estimated it would cost between 5 to 10 million dollars just to make necessary repairs to the plumbing and HVAC concerns, without even addressing the other problems. That amount would most likely be greater today and it would be more cost effective to construct a new facility. The current facility is not secure and we do not have adequate parking for our employees and citizens.
This would be a good opportunity for us to move our Patrol officers to sub-stations. Essentially, we would build four sub-stations, one in each of the four crime areas. Officers who work Patrol duties in those areas would report to the sub-station each day for their shift. Each sub-station would include a patrol desk area for citizens to come make reports and would better allocate our resources throughout the city.
The transition and construction stages are explained below:
- Step one: Establish four substations located in each of the city's crime areas. The officers would then move to the substations located in their patrol areas.
- Step two: Administrative support and investigative personnel will stay in a section of the old station, while a portion of the old station is demolished to construct a new station
- Step three: When construction of the new station is complete, administration, support, and investigative personnel will move into the new central station, and the remaining portion of the old station will be demolished.
* Since patrol will report to the substations, the new station will be smaller and have more room for parking (SPD has over 500 automobiles).
