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Complete presentation on police station study

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Contributed by: Blue Ribbon Citizen Committee on 7/16/2008

Editor's Note: A special task force made up of local citizens presented this outline to Parker town council July 14. Click here for the story.

Current Police Facility Evaluation and Needs Assessment

History and Community Growth

The current building was built and operated as a "Sun Savings and Loan" location. The Parker Police moved there in December 1994.

At that time the Police Department had 27 officers and staff serving 11,600 residents. (430 Residents per Officer/Staff)

In 2008 the Police Department has 85 officers and staff serving 46,500 residents. (547 Residents per Officer/Staff)

The Parker Residential Population is approximately 46,500, but the number of people coming from outside of Parker to, or driving through, the town is approximately 80,000. This is the number of people served during the day for crimes and traffic accidents, and will increase substantially with the opening of Costco, and other commercial developments.

The Residential Population of Parker is expected to approach 100,000 in the next 20 years with currently planned residential development.

Condition of the Current Facility

The current building is not built to Critical Response Centers Standards. It is a Wood Frame Building, not built as a Police Facility.

The current facility has wood framed walls, a partial Wood Shake Roof, and is heated by 8 furnaces, causing fire hazard and maintenance issues.

The building has an inadequate fire suppression system and only has sprinklers in the basement. The structure is at risk for a catastrophic fire.

A severe storm such as the recent Windsor Tornado could level the building, destroying millions of dollars of equipment and causing Dispatch, Personnel, and 911Emergency Service to operate from back up locations for an indefinite period of time. Additionally, evidence for hundreds of pending cases would be destroyed.

The Lobby and Dispatch areas are not secure from drive-by shooting situations.

The Electrical Service is at maximum capacity and would require a very expensive upgrade to add capacity for additional dispatch and technical equipment, servers, and other new communications and processing equipment.

There is no additional physical capacity or room to expand to add any other positions at the current facility.

Costs of maintaining the current facility are excessive due to the age and construction type, and will greatly increase in the near future with major repairs that will be needed.

The parking lot is severely undersized for the number of employees and citizens accessing the building, causing employees to park remotely, and citizens to have difficulty finding parking in the building parking lot.

There is no fencing or perimeter security to protect the police vehicle fleet from theft and vandalism, and there is no secure parking for employees, or their vehicles.

There is only a single elevator, and it does not go to the basement. This is an evacuation hazard, and causes potential injury to officers and employees, and damage to evidence.

Observations from our tour on May 8, 2008

The records department is not able to store all of the required paper files for evidence, and is using outside storage for a portion of them, at additional cost.

The holding area for people who must be detained for processing has only 2 detaining rooms, and only 1 with a toilet. It only allows for interviewing of one person. This causes extra manpower and risk to properly accommodate detainees. It also causes many to have to be transported to Castle Rock for processing. It does not meet the laws requiring sight and sound separation for males, females, and juveniles.

The laws requiring separation of detainees for interviewing cause many people to be interviewed in various staff offices. This displaces people from normal duties and causes additional risk to staff personnel.

The rear entrance used to bring in detainees for processing is not protected from weather, and ice, and is not in a secured area. This causes falls by detainees and officers, and flight risks from detainees, causing additional manpower to be needed for processing.

Approximately 1/3 of the building is used for evidence storage required by law, and is filled beyond reasonable maximum capacity. Two outside storage units are being leased at this time, with a growing need.

There are insufficient lockers for all officers, detectives, and senior officers to store their clothing and gear. Senior Officers and Detectives change clothes and store gear as needed in their offices. There is no fitness area.

There is no more room for additional offices. Sergeants, Lieutenants, and Detectives are sharing offices.

Storage for emergency response weapons (armory) is undersize and inconvenient to get to.

Storage for weapons, ammunition, radios, Tazers, and laptops to be checked out by officers for each shift are less secure than they should be, increasing risk of theft.

The building has no ability to house animals when necessary, so portable plastic kennels are used and have to be stored outside or in the back hallway, causing additional safety issues for the animals and employees.

The building has only one Investigative Interview Room that is adequately constructed for video and audio recordings. This is located behind administrative desks and requires that criminal suspects be walked through the administrative area to get to this room.

There is no meeting room or training room large enough to accommodate all employees at one time.

The reception area is very undersized and is right in front of the entrance and also right in front of the elevator door, causing people to have to move around each other when anyone needs to come in the front door or use the elevator. Additionally, anyone in the small waiting room can hear the conversation of anyone at the reception desk. This is both a privacy and security issue.

Conclusion

The Parker Police Department has done an outstanding job of protecting the public, and providing Parker an outstanding image as a safe and friendly community.

They have never had a "purpose built" facility and have been very creative in retrofitting their current location to be functional.

The community and the Police Department have grown close to 400% since they moved to their current location. It is no longer adequate for a community of this size, much less the future projected population size.

There are no longer any options to retrofit the current facility to accommodate any additional personnel, equipment, or services.

We have all been fortunate that Parker has not yet suffered a major catastrophe.

With our current population and growth projections, we need a "purpose built" facility to service the public professionally and efficiently now and in the future, through any type of major emergency event or natural catastrophe.

We feel that this is now a critical public safety issue and should be a top priority in keeping Parker the safe and reputable community it is known as.

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