City takes steps toward new Police Dept.

The city has been taking the earliest steps toward building a new police department.

Police Chief James Graves explained that the department is working with an independent firm, Hight Jackson, to perform a needs assessment for what will eventually be a new police department, and a preliminary design with cost estimates is expected near the end of this month.

“We’ve been looking at it for a while,” he said.

It’s important to note that this is not something that is expected to be built immediately and the needs assessment will be good for some time, he said, and even if everyone in the city pushes ahead, it’s unlikely ground will be broken for at least a couple years.

“We are a long way from that,” he said.

The process is important to figure out what the department’s needs will be in the future and build a police building that is good for the next 20 years or more, he said.

“We don’t want to just build a building that fits us now,” Graves explained.

Graves said the new facility should also include a more permanent space for the city’s court facility, which is currently leased space at 612 W. Lancashire Blvd.

An attached court works better in a smaller city like Bella Vista, he said.

Currently, the police department operates out of a former POA building at Town Center, which is simply inadequate for the staff and equipment needs it has.

Between the upper and lower levels, he said, police have roughly 7,300 square feet to work with.

“We need double that space for the personnel that we have right now, minimum,” Graves said.

A new building would have more space, he said, as well as training rooms. Right now, officers have to borrow the adjacent fire department training room.

There’s no timetable yet and, while he expects the city to follow through with it, it’s hard to say when that might be.

Mayor Peter Christie has previously discussed building a municipal complex, which could include the police station, court and city hall.

The five-year capital projects plan passed alongside the city’s 2019 budget includes an $11,648,864 public safety complex, which could include the police department and court facility and may be covered by a municipal bond.

That price tag is an estimate, Christie explained during a Nov. 7, 2018, work session.