Chief lays out case for standalone New Albany Police headquarters
Dec. 6—NEW ALBANY — New Albany City Council members heard details for a potential new police headquarters Monday night.
The meeting was an informational session. The project has not been voted on or approved by the full council. Mayor Jeff Gahan's administration is proposing a $12 million project that would give the New Albany Police Department its own headquarters, as it currently shares space with the Floyd County Sheriff's Department.
City officials and New Albany Police Chief Todd Bailey said that the department has outgrown its space at the Frank C. Denzinger Criminal Justice Building and needs to expand into a bigger place.
"New Albany is a safe place to live and raise a family, and we are committed to making New Albany even safer than it has been before," New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan said in a news release issued before Monday's meeting. "When completed, this will be the first stand-alone police station constructed in the history of New Albany, and we are excited to bring these expanded police services to residents of our city."
The proposed location for the new station is at the intersection of West Spring Street and Scribner Drive.
"Times have changed, other operations are necessary and the current facility was never built to facilitate any of that," Bailey said. "It was never large enough and was never designed well enough to facilitate the things that we need."
Bailey described to the council why the department needs its own space and what it needs in a new station.
More storage, a better training space and room for mental health services were some of the reasons Bailey gave for seeking a new headquarters.
"We have the ability to train maybe four people at a time," Bailey said. "That's not going to work for a modern police environment. Most police departments have a training facility where there are upwards to 20 people in a room."
The department also needs an evidence room, Bailey said, adding the city police has evidence spread out over multiple locations.
New Albany Councilman Josh Turner supports a new police station if other options have been exhausted.
"I want to make sure that we've done our due diligence and look at all other options as well," Turner said. "We have a substation on Ekin Avenue. I would like to see if those other options have been on the table also."
"For me it's what does the data suggest and what do the numbers show," he continued. "We have, in my opinion, the best police department and officers in Southern Indiana, and they deserve the best we can give to them."
But officials also have to be wise stewards of taxpayer money, Turner added.
NAPD's narcotics wing is in a different building because the department does not have enough room for the operation at the current location, Bailey said. They also do not have a private room for them to talk to a resident that is reporting a crime to the police.
"Right now we have to talk to them in an open, nonsecure lobby," Bailey said. "We have built into the new facility a secure, private room where that individual can share with a police officer what's happening in a non-judgemental way."
The new building will not be able to process criminals, it will not have the licensing to be able to process people.
For mental health services, Bailey said that the police would be partnering with existing agencies that will work from the new station. He has not said which agency they will be working with for that role.
"If we do nothing, we're still in a substandard facility that is aging," Bailey said. "When we have people operating out of what was originally going to be closet space, that's a problem."
