August 10, 2009, 10 a.m. — At this moment, the local media, including OurGreenwich.com reporter/columnist Sarah Darer Littman and OurGreenwich.com photo-essayist, John Ferris Robben, are touring the soon to be opened new police building. You will see their professional accounts — in proses and photos — shortly. But in our continuing effort to bring you the news of our Greenwich first, we present this “sneak peak” synopsis of the building.
SEE the essay on the new police building by Sarah Littman by clicking here.
The Greenwich Public Safety Complex will house all of Greenwich’s emergency services operations: Greenwich Police Department, Fire Department and Marshall, and Greenwich Emergency Medical Services (“GEMS”). The old police administrative building (a former Studebaker dealership) and the old police parking lot form the footprint of the new public safety garage and police headquarters.
In early September, after the police move into the new structure, phase two of the project will begin. In that phase, the current police building will be refitted to house the GFD and GEMS. The old building, on Havemeyer Place, was built in 1938 to house Greenwich’s police and fire departments and the now defunct Greenwich Municipal Court.
The new offices of all three branches of first responders will be accessed through a common atrium on Bruce Place. Traffic on Bruce Place, which was redirected to a westbound flow for the duration of the construction of the new building, will revert to its eastbound flow, entering off Greenwich Avenue, once the new building is opened for business. Next to the new building is a large garage capable of housing the entire GPD fleet and the personal cars of on-duty officers.
Entering through the main entrance of the new Public Safety Complex from Bruce Place, visitors will see a bullet-proof windowed room, where the police desk sergeant will be posted like Captain Kirk on the bridge of the Enterprise. Besides a 270 degree view of the lobby, the desk sergeant and others “on the bridge” will be able to monitor the entire 50,000 square foot building using 57 strategically placed cameras.
Walking past the command and control console room in the marble-walled public lobby, visitors will be in a bank-like setting with teller-like windows along the east wall. Planning research determined that 90% of the public interaction with GPD was with the police records division, so the building was designed to make access to that unit quick and easy for the public. Residents can obtain what they need from a teller window in the lobby, then be on their way. The goal is for the citizens to be served efficiently by the civilian police staff without distracting the sworn officers from their jobs.
Beyond the lobby is an elevator bank, which citizens will use to reach the offices of GEMS. A secure door next to the elevators leads to a semi-public area, including a “community room” for meetings of the Community and Police Partnership (CAPP) and other police related groups. The doors can be programmed to be open to allow public access to that limited area without compromising the secure area beyond.
Past the semi-public area is the first secure perimeter is the cell-block: 17 cells total, including two juvenile cells to keep the offenders isolated from adult offenders, and a handicap-fitted cell. (The entire building is American with Disabilities Act compliant.) There is a bank of gun lockers and other security and safety measures as well as monitored interview rooms.
The Records Division will have ample storage and modern evidence lockers (including a refrigerated unit for rape kits, blood work and perishables). The evidence lockers are designed with safeguards to guarantee the sanctity of the evidence custody chain. This system replaces the chain-link fenced off area in the old police garage where evidence used to be held.
The building has a secure “sally port” for prisoner intake, including a decontamination shower. It is near the prisoner processing (fingerprinting, digital “mugshots” and the like) area. There is a specially outfitted section for the GPD Youth Division, designed to accommodate children and families. Greenwich’s version of CSI, will have a modern laboratory (which they designed) including evidence drying facilities and places for physical processing of evidence including computer evidence. It is located along side the rest of the Criminal Investigation Division or CID (that is, Detectives).
Also, adjacent to the CID is the patrol operations. The design was planned to facility exchange of information between the units. Patrol will have room for a shift’s “roll call” and briefing. Currently, the lunchroom serves double-duty as a briefing room. There will be a female (4 bunks) and a male (10 bunks) dormitory on this floor to be used, for instance, when an officer is required to work a double shift in a blizzard and driving to his/her home in Danbury or Fairfield would be impractical.
The Chief’s office suite is near the offices of the rest of the command staff and the Community Impact Section, communication team and Traffic Enforcement Section. The building has three classrooms for the continuing training officers are required by law to undergo each year. One of these rooms has a rubber floor for tactical training.
The new headquarters has male and female locker rooms. Each officer will receive a tall locker (equipped with an electrical outlet to charge phones, radios and other devices) plus a smaller “half locker.” The locker rooms are joined by a fitness center. In addition, the lower level has locker rooms for civilian police employees.
FINALLY!
Finally, the dedicated men and women of Greenwich’s Finest will have a thoughtfully designed and engineered, professional facility on a par with the professionalism they have shown throughout the years.
on Aug 26th, 2009 at 8:48 am
[...] event with somewhat sentimental remarks welcoming the assembled corp of police officers to their “new home” — a home which the Chief said matched the professionalism of the men and women of GPD. [...]