By Lanz Christian Bañes/Times-Herald staff writer
Posted: 04/18/2009 01:03:00 AM PDT
BENICIA -- The Benicia Police Department headquarters is inadequate and the Solano County Grand Jury recommends the city consider building a new one.
"It's horrendous," police spokesman Lt. Mike Daley said in agreement.
The grand jury is an investigative county body that regularly scrutinizes various issues and agencies, ranging from local police departments to concealed weapons licenses.
Police headquarters at 200 East L St. was built before World War II and was a condemned schoolhouse when police moved into the building in 1962.
Since then, the department has been making do with a disjointed operation, with its detective unit housed in a separate building in the back.
The grand jury recommends Benicia build a new police headquarters, an idea voters rejected in 2003.
"We put some cosmetics on it, but it's totally dysfunctional," Daley said of a recent retrofit to help make the building more livable.
A Times-Herald tour of the facilities showed cramped quarters, despite parts of the building having been repainted and finished in the retrofit. As the grand jury noted, detectives were housed in a portable dozens of yards from the main building.
The grand jury also noted that the department lacks separate holding facilities for juveniles and adults and recommended separating the two.
However, Daley contends that, while authorized to hold juveniles in the holding cells if they are combative, juveniles can be held in an interview room away from adults. Still, plans for a proposed police department building have always included separate juvenile facilities, he said.
The grand jury also expressed concerns for the building's seismic stability. The panel apparently was unable to determine whether the building met current seismic standards at the time of its inspection, though.
In addition to criticizing the police department's building, the grand jury also recommended having a volunteer police officer reserve program and more intensive disaster planning. It also urged the recruiting of more female officers.
The full report can be seen at www.solano courts.com.
Contact staff writer Lanz Christian Bañes at (707) 553-6833 or lbanes@thnewsnet.c
http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_12171959
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