THURSDAY, OCT. 2 – The new Lansing Police Department Operations Center is a testament to creative use of space and creative partnerships.
The Lansing School District gets a tenant for a largely vacant Harry Hill High School.
The Lansing Police Department gets a new home after its lease ended at the May Street facility on the city’s north side.
It's a rent-free arrangement, in exchange for renovations and upgrades including paving the parking lot, transforming classroom space into modern offices outfitted with electrical and technical upgrades, and a police presence that beats any security alarm you could install.
Captain Jim Kraus gave the City Pulse a mini tour Wednesday, showing off the new crime scene investigation lab, a huge bay area that includes a vehicle lift and tons of space.
“We process a lot of cars,” he said. “We need a place to bring the cars to process.”
Officers pull evidence like finger prints.
He said the department has never had a lift before, which makes working on the cars a lot easier.
He said the renovations were under $1 million upgrading offices where there were classrooms. The department is using 84,000 square feet of space, according to Public Information Officer Robert Merritt.
Locker rooms were built. There’s a fitness room. They’ve built five interview rooms, two more than what they had in the May Street facility. The rooms are used to interview suspects or witnesses. All are wired to audio record the sessions. One will be especially outfitted for children with toys.
There are plans for a media room, where press conferences can be held.
“This is a great big building,” he said as we strolled the school hallways. “We took chunks of it to make a good working environment.”
The operations center houses 150 employees primarily from the patrol division, detectives and crime scene unit.
The motorcycles have storage space. The K-9 units are there as well.
The entire department isn’t in the south Lansing location, however. The jail remains downtown, as well as central records and the administration, he said.
“We’re not in a position to create a new detention facility,” he said. It makes more sense to keep the jail downtown near the courts, he said.
The public shouldn’t be concerned about moving the station to the other end of town. He said officers patrol four sectors in the city. They clock in at the station and then head for their designated areas. The move should not affect response times, in other words.
The police department moved in at the end of August. There are still minor nips and tucks going on - some doorway work was underway in the CSI lab, and Kraus’ key card swipe didn’t work on one door. But he had an old fashioned key as a backup.
The school district still has some programming in the building. The backside of the structure is also home to the Alfreda Schmidt Southside Community center.
The police department held an open house Tuesday night for the community. No tours were given, but he said it went well, as a meet and greet. How does he know?
“We went through 400 hot dogs.”
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