City police eye expanding facilities
NEWS PHOTO EMMA BENNETT
In the coming years the Medicine Hat Police Service building, located just off Maple Avenue, could see some upgrades and
renovations. Police Chief Andy McGrogen says the decision to expand is based on MHPS’s growing numbers, and new developments in policing that take up increasing amounts of space. What the new building may look like is still in question.
Andrea Klassen Medicine Hat News
Staff at the Medicine Hat Police Service building will get a bit more elbow room in the coming years, but what the city’s updated police centre will look like is still in question.
"We're busting at the seams here,” says Police Chief Andy McGrogan of the current 20 year- old building. “ We have no locker room space for our members... We don't have enough room in our cells for our prisoners, and it goes on and on. We don't have enough indoor parking for our vehicles. We're just out of space."
McGrogan says the decision to expand is based on MHPS’s growing numbers, and new developments in policing that take up increasing amounts of space.
“We're a lot more accountable to the courts than we were, and as such we hold a lot more exhibits, so storage is a big issue for us," he explains.
Integrated units which work with other law enforcement groups in the province, such as the Organized Crime and Major Crimes units, also require more office space, he says.
The process for remanding prisoners has also gotten more complex, meaning people stay in the building’s cells longer than they used to.
The Redbanks Pepper Littlewood architecture firm is currently doing a needs assessment for the force, says Staff Sgt. Tim McGough, who’s worked on the facility project.
The assessment will look at the service’s current space needs, and also try to predict what kind of expansion the force will see in the next two decades.
There are three possible options for the building. One would be to expand the existing facility, if there’s space to do so. Another would be to build a completely new building on a different site. The final proposal would reconfigure the current building, and add a satellite station in another part of the city.
Mayor Norm Boucher, chief of police until 2007, says he’d like to see the needs assessment deal with the building’s 911 centre.
Currently, he says the dispatch centre is housed in the middle of the building and has no exterior windows, making it difficult for operators to find out about storms or other foul weather.
He also says satellite stations could focus on staff who don’t need to spend much time at the police building, such as school resource officers, or those who patrol areas on the other side of the city.
"When you do a review of your service, you have to ask, where are you most of the time?” he says. “And right now I know it's Southridge, and that becomes a good distance from the police office. It's not 100 miles, but it's still a good distance."
McGough says the needs assessment will be completed in March. After that, the MHPS will study the cost of its various options, before moving on to a building design.
Construction will likely begin in the spring or summer of 2011, with a target end date of September 2012.
Congratulations Ken on another outstanding year.
Ken would like to say thank you to all his
loyal clientele and all the best to them and their families in 2010. Ken has been employed at Big M for 16 years.
www.bigmford.ca
1312 Transcanada Way 403-527-4406
REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA 2010 ■ Celebrating our Community — 35
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