By Staff
Current one too small
By CLAUD HODGES
Senior Reporter
Washington Police Department’s 33-year-old station on West Third Street is busting at the seams.
A needs assessment made five years ago determined that the Washington police station should have been 19,000 square feet, at a minimum, then.
Today, the 6,900 square feet building is the same as it was five years ago.
He estimated that the city’s police station is 10 years behind where it should be.
In order for Washington to operate in a safe environment, he said the residents and businesses of the community need a police station that can handle the law enforcement needs of the community.
Right now, the current police station is simply overloaded, Reed said. Office space is at a premium and all of the department’s vehicles not in use at a particular time have to be stored off the station’s premises because there are too many of them to be held stationary there.
At this point, the city does not have an approximate cost of a new station, he said. The cost will not come into question until the time comes when the city government’s leaders make a decision of when it might be feasible to even think of designing and building a new station, he said.
When a feasibility study to build a new station is conducted, Reed said several factors will have to be considered to get the project off the ground.
With the list of factors certainly to be very long, the police chief said the following list would touch on some of the major issues:
– The station must comply with all regulations and laws.
– The station must provide a secure, open access for the community’s residents to visit.
– The station must provide access to residents for community meetings.
– The station must have ample space for in-house training of its officers.
– The station must provide a safe environment for the police officers and employees who work there.
– The station must keep up with technology and state-of-the-art law enforcement practices and procedures.
– The station must follow the rules set up by the federal government’s requirements under its Homeland Security program.
– The station must provide secure vehicle parking.
Now, the Washington police station is working on threads and is struggling along to meet its many requests for service, Reed said. However, he said the service being provided is not lacking and that it is being provided as it should be. Simply, he said, the space needs for its officers, employees and members of the community remain the issue of the need for a larger building.
The police department’s commitment to community policing will also be a factor in the development and establishment of a new police station.