Take a sneak peak at Portsmouth’s new police station

Three-level, 22,000-square-foot building features community room and an emphasis on safety

By Jim McGaw
Posted 3/11/19

PORTSMOUTH — With the smell of fresh paint still wafting in the air, Police Chief Thomas Lee on Monday gave members of the media a tour of the department’s new police station, which …

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Take a sneak peak at Portsmouth’s new police station

Three-level, 22,000-square-foot building features community room and an emphasis on safety

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — With the smell of fresh paint still wafting in the air, Police Chief Thomas Lee on Monday gave members of the media a tour of the department’s new police station, which is officially scheduled to open on Wednesday of this week.

“It’s a beautiful new building,” said Chief Lee, who moved in Friday along with his administrative team to a suite on the top level. (His new, larger digs feature a view of the Department of Public Works garage as well as a glimpse of the Sakonnet River.)

More legroom for the town’s top cops, however, wasn’t the reason behind the push for a new three-level, 22,000-square-foot station, which was approved by voters through a $10 million bond issue in November 2016. (Because various change orders pushed the cost of the new building over that amount, the Town Council voted in December to use about $204,000 in surplus funds to complete the job.)

The current 44-year-old station, only 5,772 square feet in area, is cramped and considered woefully inadequate for a modern-day police department.

“This is quadruple the size, and we’re very appreciative to have a brand new station, thanks to our council, our town administrator and most importantly our voters who supported the project,” said Chief Lee.

Demolition of the old station — where a parking area will be built for the new building behind it — will begin as soon as possible. “The project won’t be completed until May, when the other building is down and the parking lot’s finished,” Chief Lee said, adding that the official ribbon-cutting is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Friday, May 31.

Upon entering the lobby of the new building, visitors will see the new dispatch room to the right.

“It’s a great expansion of our capabilities,” Chief Lee said. “We’ll be able to dispatch police and fire if necessary. We’re going from one dispatch station to four dispatch stations, so if there’s ever a major incident we’ll be able to handle it from here.”

One of the biggest features of the new station is a large community room on the same floor. It has five long tables and seating for 30 people — another 15 chairs could be brought in — as well as an 85-inch TV monitor for presentations.

“If you remember the old building, we didn’t have much and we didn’t have a community room,” the chief said. “This will be open to our community groups starting in May, after we have our grand opening. It’s an idea I got from Middletown Police, and they let groups use their room. It’s been very well received and I want to do the same here. Our voters supported this building and I want them to use it.”

Members of the public have already asked to use the room, but it won't be available until the grand opening in May, said Chief Lee. Local groups will be able to book the space through Tracey LePage, the police records clerk.

Locker rooms, cell blocks

The chief then took the group down to the basement, where the locker rooms and cell block area are located. 

“We now have an actual women’s locker room. Before, they were using a converted bathroom,” Chief Lee said, adding that women didn’t even have a coat rack at the old station. “They had to leave their coats in the shower.”

The department currently employs six female officers, including the town’s first woman to be named deputy chief, Maryanne Perry, who joined Monday’s tour. There are currently 36 officers on the force and the new station has 49 lockers — 36 for men and 13 for women. 

“We obviously built the locker rooms for the future,” the chief said.

The lockers are “probably four times the size” of the old ones, which came from Portsmouth High School after the school’s locker rooms were modernized, he added.

The area where suspects are processed after being arrested is a complete overhaul over the old police station, with safety at the forefront. The basement has a “sally port” to allow cruisers to enter the building for safe transport of suspects to a nearby booking area. 

“This a great advantage over our old system,” he said. “We did have a sally port in the old system, but the officers’ patrol room was across the booking area, so people were constantly walking through. We’re big on firearm safety. That’s one of the things I wanted to stress; we don’t want any firearms in an area where we’re going to have prisoners. The layout here is going to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Groups of small gun lockers for the safekeeping of firearms are scattered throughout the building. “When you come in, you store your weapon. Again, it’s something we didn’t have in our old building,” he said.

More holding cells

The unit also contains a separate set of small holding cells — eight for men and two for women — plus one for prisoners with disabilities. The old building didn’t have a handicapped-equipped cell, but one was required at the new station under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the chief said.

“It’s maybe four times the size of a (regular) cell, for people in wheelchairs. Unfortunately, we have arrested handicapped people before, and it was very difficult because we couldn’t put them in a standard cell in the old station,” he said.

The holding cells at the new station will not be used for juveniles, the chief noted.

The cell block area also contains a small room with a toilet, but no door. It’s for prisoners who are being processed, but need to relieve themselves immediately. “If you absolutely have to go, we’ll walk you around the corner to here. We’re not going to put you in a cell until we finish processing you,” he said.

The administrative suite on the top floor includes several offices, including those for Chief Lee and Deputy Chief Perry. Visitors will be greeted by Ms. LePage, who was already moved in Monday along with Chief Lee. 

The suite also has a large conference room for staff — a big improvement over the old station’s cramped multi-purpose room that was used for meetings, a lunch space and more.

“We will have our own meetings and trainings up here,” Chief Lee said.

Bentley Builders of North Kingstown was the general contractor for the project. Drummey Rosane Anderson, Inc., with locations in Massachusetts and Connecticut, was the architect.

Portsmouth Police Department, Portsmouth police station

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