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SLO considers replacing police station with public safety center

November 7, 2021

By KAREN VELIE

San Luis Obispo City officials discussed replacing the current police department with a $52 million public safety center at last weeks SLO City Council meeting. If approved, construction would begin in the next four to five years.

The proposed facility would add an additional 21,000 square feet of space that would include a 1,492 square feet community room and a 2,800 square feet emergency operation center. The community room would help promote transparency and connections with the community, said Police Chief Rick Scott.

“It is a very exciting time as we are in the process of re-imagining policing and this opens up a lot of opportunities to re-engage our community in a different way,” Scott said.

Even so, proponents of last years defund the police movement voiced concerns of the cost and impact on minority populations.

“Certainly, seismic retrofitting and ADA compliance are reasonable to allocate funds to, but the community room feels a little redundant of other spaces,” said R.A.C.E. Matters founder Courtney Haile. “ A community room at a police station certainly doesn’t make everyone feel safe. Public safety is a relative term. This could add to the distrust.”

Constructed in 1969, the current police department was built to serve a population of 28,000 people, while there are now more than 47,000 people living in SLO. City staff also proposed retrofitting the existing station at a cost of approximately $18 million.

City official will evaluate their options over the next several years, while considering community input.


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Why stop there, replace jail with social centers, replace courts with hotels, replace police with social workers, replace consequences of illegal acts, oh wait that’s already been replaced with no consequences.


25

You know what would make a great Public Safety Center: THE EMPTY MINDBODY BUILDING. They could use that fancy garage for all their fancy vehicles. Save the money by locking in a long term lease and use the existing downtown station as a satellite.

… you’re welcome.


23

Too late, mindbody started using it again now that they are returning back to in-person work. Also that building is right on the southern outskirts of town right next to the city limits. A police station needs to be more centrally located.


-9

Y’all must not realize who owns all the commercial property on that end of town. John Wallace.


7

yep! Santa Maria police dept. did this!


0

Money would be better spent on First 5 in SLO County! EDUCATION is the way forward. Well-adjusted children is the way forward.


-23

As of now, eighteen downvotes, haha. I had no idea there were eighteen, generational funded “individuals”, who read the comments. I must have really hit a nerve suggesting we provide for children! Any CASA-SLO? The irony being, I don’t see First 5 throwing any parties-with-a-purpose where champagne is sipped under the guise of helping children. Unfortunately that is the only way to garner support from some of the more “fortunate”.


-6

In the end there will be a new Police Station, compliant with State and Federal standards and better suited for needs of city law enforcement. Hopefully the monies spent on public acceptance will be limited to what is required.


6

Paso did this years ago with its combo Police/fire public safety center and it works great. What they didn’t do is add a woke “community room “ so they could say they are listening to the cry baby snowflakes who are offended by everything. This new Chief with his catch phrase “reimagining policing “ sounds like a soft on crime woke yes man to the libtards.


45

A community room serves many purposes including supporting community oriented policing to strengthen the connection between the police force and the community. I get that the Paso PD was never big on community policing in the dark ages before you got fired from the force, so I’m not surprised you have no idea about the concept, but W.T.F. is this “woke” nonsense you are babbling about?


-17

SLO City Fire Department already has its own Taj Mahal at the corner of Broad and South Sts. It even has a museum.


7

You mean the county emergency command center/dispatch that some braintrust decided the massive natural gas pipeline 15′ away from the building was a nonissue in earthquake country.


9

But it looks so nice at that intersection! Very Taj Mahally! Plenty of room to house the huge Taj Mahal Firetruck (that we just had to have) too!


3

Considering how you got fired for failing to enforce the laws, I guess you know all about “soft on crime”, don’t ya Pac Man?


1

Stop trying to “re-imagine” policing. What a distraction. Aren’t the police supposed to be out arresting bad guys. They need a community center for that? Help the community by cleaning up the streets.


50

There is a HUGE difference between seismically retrofitting/updating/prudently expanding the SLOPD Station and building yet another taxpayer-funded Taj Mahal! The size of a city’s main police station isn’t linearly related to its population. SLOPD’s justification is ridiculous. It’s weak. This is nothing more than another proposed boondoggle.


The proposed 37,768 square-foot station is more than TWICE the size of the current 16,768 square-foot station. Crazy!


Two of the biggest problems is once the taxpayers pay for such a showpiece, they then have to pay to maintain it — forever. With more space comes the artificial “need” to fill it with additional employees. The proposed “community room” is also ridiculous. There are already spaces for the public to meet at the local library and elsewhere.


We all know that if the current station sat on a larger lot, the proposal would be to construct an even larger station.


For an off-the-wall point of reference, the City of Los Angeles has almost 84 times the population of the City of SLO. Multiplying this proposed 37,768-square-foot station by 84 yields over 3.1 million square feet. Larger than the Empire State Building which is about 2.7M square feet. In reality, the LAPD HQ is 491,000 square feet. No, I’m not going to add all of LAPD’s individual precinct stations to this number because in addition to housing administration, the LAPD HQ also provides operational space for law enforcement of directly surrounding areas — for a population many times the size of SLO.


28

Maybe Dayspring can spring for the cost since he seems to be so charitable with San Luis Obispo county political influencers while dodging millions in taxes. Probably time for local politicians to ask for another round of pay raises now that their sugar daddy is cooperating. Perhaps Parkinson can sell his $600,000 toy boat that has never been used for the purpose he claimed, though he fibbed when pleading for the funding of said boat. Instead of a new police department, perhaps the FBI should just set up their own offices here in San Luis Obispo. There’s plenty of work to do here. Pigs at the trough.


39

I actually like the idea of the FBI opening up a very visible little office in SLO. If there’s no office space available at the downtown post office, then set-up in a nearby open storefront.


10

To spend 56 million to re imaging policing is a downright Heidi Harmon Scheme, just retrofit the station. A police station doesn’t need an a amphitheatre, emergency center when there’s a damn CSU down the street with endless room. Waste of cash, and Slo PD will still suck either way. They’ve been fking up for years. I agree, the current station is old, so retrofit it.


57
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