City of Salinas celebrates groundbreaking at new police headquarters

UPDATE 09/10/18 8:45pm The city of Salinas is breaking ground on a new Salinas Police Service headquarters.

The current police department off of Lincoln Avenue was build in 1958.

Salinas Mayor Joe Gunter says when he was sworn in as an officer in 1969 there were talks of a new facility, “somewhere around December 30th of that year I was walking in and the Deputy Chief said we’re gonna have a new building in two year. Well that came and went.”

He says those talks went on for years, almost 50 to be exact. Now that is changing.

Chief Adele Frese says, “it’s not just about comfort, but functionality. There’s so many things that I have found that we aren’t able to do because of our limited physical space.”

Aside from space, the building has plumbing and electrical service issues too.

“It’s just so much wiser and productive for us to invest in our future rather than trying to continue to repair pieces of our old structure,” says Chief Frese.

There will be two buildings on the new site that is at the corner of E. Alisal and Murphy Streets.

One will have evidence storage, a forensic laboratory and firearms training facility. The Headquarters building will be home to administration, investigators, patrol and support staff.

There will also be a community room in the Headquarters. Something the department doesn’t have right now.

“It will bring the community better together and the newer police stations are getting out of the direction of building them like they are a prison, they are not a prison it’s a building people work in that they pay. All we have is service to provide and this is a great opportunity to enhance what we already have,” says Mayor Gunter.

The $56mil project is being funded by Measure G and is the largest, most expensive project the city has taken on.

The Chief says they will also be naming the facility “Salinas Police Service Headquarters” rather than “Salinas Police Department” to emphasize their service to the community.

Officials say everything is expected to be done by January of 2020.

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The city of Salinas is breaking ground on a new Salinas Police Service headquarters.

The ceremonies were held at 312 E. Alisal Street on Monday, September 10.

The El Gabilan Library is also holding a groundbreaking ceremony Monday at 1:30 p.m. at 1400 N. Main Street.

KION’s Ashley Keehn will have more on the new SPD headquarters at 5 and 6 p.m. on KION News Channel 5,46.