GILFORD POLICE DEPARTMENT RENOVATION

AND ADDITION

Building History Town Hall Complex to Include the Police

Department was built in 1988. (25yrs ago) In 1988 we had 18 full time employees in

the department and answered 5,712 calls for service.

To meet the demands a quarter century later the department has expanded in staffing and equipment.

The Year of 2013 ended with 20,223 calls for service with 23 full time employees.

Current Facility Main Floor

Current Facility Lower level

Layout of Existing StructureLobby/Entry

Current Lobby is shared with the Town Hall Complex

Citizens don’t have privacy when talking about sensitive issues at the dispatch window.

Citizens going to other areas within the town complex are exposed to vulgarity, adult situations and potential danger.

Dispatch is protected; why aren’t you?

Current Lobby/Entryway

Layout Continued New Lobby

Newly Designed Lobby will have a separate entrance on the opposite side of the current building.

The separate entrance lowers the risk of the general public getting hurt during a police incident.

This removes the embarrassment of talking about sensitive issues in front of the general public.

Lobby includes a waiting area and access to a safe room that is controlled by dispatch.

What is a Safe Room? A safe room is a secure room directly off

from the dispatch lobby that can be controlled by dispatch.

It allows dispatch to secure a victim of an assault, road rage, or other serious incident from the public, without an officer there.

This room also will double as a meeting room where officers will take reports from the public.

New Entry, Safe Room, Dispatch

Highlighted Dispatch/Entryway

Current Layout Currently the Gilford Police Department

has one interview/citizen complaint room.

This is the room we use to interview suspects of serious crimes as well as talking to the public about simple or small issues.

Many times the room is full because of an interview and people have to wait or speak to an officer in the lobby. No privacy!

Layout Continued

To get to the current interview room you have to walk through the police department and past many of the inner workings of the department.

This is problematic for sensitive materials, and when interviews become heated, loud.

Current Interview room also has exterior noise from copier, shredder, people passing by.

Hallway to Interview

Layout Continued Interviews are recorded both audio and

visual. External noises such as conversations,

shredder noise, unknowing officers get recorded.

Not handicapped accessible. The hallway to the interview room is currently just passable for a single person and would not allow wheel chair access.

Layout ContinuedHallways

Because of the expansion of dispatch, the area that was once used for officers to get paperwork and share information at shift change, isn’t more than a hallway.

This hallway is also the same hallway used to bring in members of the public to the interview room.

Many times these shift changes and information sharing sessions are interrupted by someone from the public coming through.

Paperwork area/Hallway

Communications Center Expanded to include two consoles in 2000.

This was to allow for busier times, large events and details. ie; motorcycle week, busy summer nights when the population is more than doubled, Meadowbrook

The expansion did not include space for a kitchen area or storage for coats and personal items for the shift.

A combination kitchen/bathroom is used. This is not sanitary and inadequate for our

employees.

Communications Unlike the officers, Communication Specialists

can’t leave their post for food, to use the bathroom etc.. unless relieved by other staff.

Adequate access to a bathroom with radio and phone capabilities is necessary.

A separate Kitchen area is needed within a reasonable distance.

Current consoles and equipment are outdated and not ergonomic. Usability issues as they relate to operating the numerous controls.

All of these are addressed in the new facility

Dispatch Kitchen/Bathroom

Records Currently directly off from Communications. Despite recent changes to move to a more

paperless system, there are still files that need to be kept in original form. Some stay for several years depending on statutory requirements, unsolved cases, appeals.

We keep the most current records in this office. Everything else goes to our cold storage.

Literally….

Records/Evidence Cold Storage

Records Continued New facility allows for records expansion

within the controlled facility. Eliminates rental of storage containers at

$225 dollars a month, allows access without unfreezing locks, digging through the snow, possibility of damage from a water leak, freezing or heat issues.

Overall Upstairs Layout Current offices are full to include using

one of our interview rooms. There is not any storage on the entire

main floor. There is not a meeting room. New design is properly laid out.

Communications has a separate bathroom and access to a small kitchen area.

Overall Layout Continued Interview room is now in the front of the

building next to detectives. Copier and shredder are now in a

separate room. There are mechanical and storage areas

included in the design.

Emergency Operations CenterTraining room/Function Room

We have included a newly designed EOC in our training room.

This will include updated equipment to handle an all hazard event within our community; Weather, School, Airport, Natural Disaster.

The EOC will have interoperability capabilities and be tied into our communications center.

EOC/Training Room Continued The police department will now have a

training room. The existing police training room has

been made into an officers room because of space constraints.

We currently use the town hall meeting room, library function room and sometimes the fire department depending on availability for our trainings.

EOC/Training Room Continued Why Do we need a Secure Training

Room? Some police trainings involve sensitive

materials. We also do multi agency briefings for

serious arrest/search warrants. Major Incidents that last several days. ie;

Homicide. Department meetings

EOC/Training Room Continued This room will also be able to be

scheduled by civic groups or organizations within the town when not in use.

The entire room is within the existing space, but can still be secured from the rest of the police department.

Emergency Operations Center

EOC Highlighted

Lower Level Layout Existing Structure has design flaws. Laundry within booking area. Officers room, Evidence, Lunch Room,

Armory are all accessed by going through the booking area.

Doors are backwards for room access. Bail Commissioner’s desk is in hallway

under stairs. Fire Hazard.

Lower level current

Booking Room The booking room is too small. Space=Distance=Officer Safety Current Room although redesigned by

officers still does not provide adequate space when booking arrestees. This is a huge LIABILITY if an officer gets hurt.

Bail Commissioner Window was put in two years ago for their safety. Just not enough room to safely handle upset and intoxicated subjects.

Current Booking Room

New Booking Room New Design gives the space needed. There are two cells contained within the

booking area. There is a third holding area for arrestees

to be booked and to speak with us and the bail Commissioner safely.

Eliminates Stairway Fire Hazard and Window.

New Booking Design

Booking Highlighted

Holding Cells Existing building has two holding cells. One is currently being used for firearms

storage. Many times we cannot meet the

requirement of site and sound separation of arestees.

New Design covers this. New Design is laid out with safety in

mind.

Sally Port/Garage The current Facility has two Sally port

entrances. When an arrest is brought in they are first

secured in the sally port and then brought into the booking room.

Our current design and lack of space has us storing maintenance supplies, tools, evidence, vehicles in the sally port.

Current Sally Port

Sally Port/Garage Continued

Maintenance items can be a safety issue if we have a combative subject.

Vehicles stored as evidence mean that we sometimes can’t use the space at all.

The New design includes a third bay for seized vehicles, large evidentiary items or maintenance supplies.

This eliminates the Officer Safety Issue.

Officers Room Currently our Officers are in the training

room that was built by the officers with donated materials.

Officers have a small area for their files, personal and duty equipment.

The new design is similar but professionally built.

It is also built in an area that does not have to be accessed through booking. Proper layout.

Current Officers Room

Laundry As mentioned earlier this is now located

in our booking area and entered by civilians.

New facility will have the laundry accessible from the outside but secure from the rest of the facility.

Laundry has separate access.

Existing Laundry in Booking

New Sally Port Laundry Entrance

Sally Port Highlighted

Men’s and Women’s Locker Room

Currently both are substandard. Both have had issues with water damage, mold.

This has lead to rust and is in need of an update.

No place to sit down to put on your boots, get dressed.

Locker sizes are too small to put uniforms in without getting them wrinkled. No place for boots or jackets. Shower and bathroom stalls are old and in disrepair.

Men’s and Women’s Locker RoomContinued

New locker room will provide updated bathroom facilities.

Larger lockers for proper uniform storage, boot storage.

A place to sit down to get changed. Water and mold issues will be addressed.

Current Locker Room

Evidence storage Current facility has small temporary lockers

that are in sally port. No large temporary lockers, so items are

stored in armory when needed, or an evidence officer needs to come in.

Current long term storage space is inadequate with current space being full.

Large or long term storage items are kept in a storage trailer behind the building. These items need to be dug out and is not climate controlled.

Current Temporary Lockers

Evidence Storage Continued

Current Evidence processing and materials storage is a 4x5 old photo room.

There is literally no space for processing evidence.

The fuming chamber is a non ventilated aquarium. Serious health risks if not careful.

Evidence Processing

Evidence Storage Continued

Evidence Upgrades in New Facility. New pass through temporary evidence

storage with large and small lockers. Adequately sized evidence processing

and storage supply room. Internal long term large and small

evidence storage with room for expansion.

Elimination of storage containers out back.

New Evidence and Records

Evidence Highlighted

Armory Current armory is small but sufficient for

storage, however there is not any place to maintain or clean firearms.

Currently firearms are cleaned or maintained on the lunch room or officer tables. Chemicals are not safe for use in eating area.

New Armory gives the space needed and includes a sink to wash hands.

Current Armory

Additional Room The New facility leaves room for

expansion in the records and evidence area.

There is also room for expansion in the locker rooms.

There is a small amount of room for additional office space if needed.

Equipment Upgrades Our current security system which includes

video and audio recording of the police department both inside and out is outdated.

This means Black and White and barely able to distinguish people. The recording system is a recent temporary replacement. Access to the building is done by push buttons operated in dispatch that sometimes don’t work.

Other secure areas within the facility are operated by push button coded locks.

Equipment Upgrades The new facility will include an up to date

security system with color cameras and adequate recording and viewing abilities.

An upgraded entry system will utilize a fob design or key card.

Why do we need this Security is important for Officer Safety. Video is important for court prosecution

in the booking and sally port area. It is important in secure areas such as

evidence or the armory so that we know when rooms are entered and by who.

Summarization The need is here and has been for several

years. The police department has worked hard

to work with what they have. The new facility gives us what we need,

while keeping the future in mind, at a reasonable cost.

The time is now. Thank You

Main Floor New Design

Lower Level New Design