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Main Page Station at UMass Planned
(Click here to view the original thread on the MassCops Message Board)

Posted by: WaterPistola

Station at UMass planned

Friday, December 21, 2007 By DIANE LEDERMAN

dlederman@repub.com
AMHERST - UMass officials this week took the first step toward building a police station on campus by putting out a request for proposals for the station's design.
The department operates out of the basement and first floor of Dickinson Hall and shares the building with the U.S. Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program and classrooms.
"I wouldn't call it a police station," said James E. Cahill, director of facilities and campus planning. "They don't have cells." If they have to hold a prisoner, that person is sent to the Amherst police station downtown.

"We're in a desperate need for an appropriate facility," said Police Chief Barbara R. O'Connor who fist joined the force in 1983 when there were 33 officers compared with the 63 now. The university plans to hire two new officers a year to bring the force to 69, she said.

"We're like the equivalent of a police station in the basement of Town Hall." She said officers don't have a locker room and instead have lockers in the hall. They have no space for dispatch or an evidence processing room. "We do our lab stuff out in the back parking lot."
She said they operate out of about 8,000 square feet now and a study showed they need triple that space.
Also because of the location of the station, police have trouble getting in and out of the facility when there are shows at the William D. Mullins Memorial Center. Traffic is tied up at those times, she said.
Officers faced the same traffic difficulties during last week's snowstorm when campus was dismissed early. "We couldn't exit the parking lot."
The new station, estimated to cost $12 million, will be built on Tillson Farm, near the town's North Fire Station.
She said the departments needs have grown as the university has grown. A bid for design work for a new station in Northampton was recently awarded. And voters in Montague supported the building of a new station there as well.
Bids for the design are due Jan 15. Cahill hopes to get the design work under way in February and have a finished station in 2009.

http://www.masslive.com/hampfrank/re...750.xml&coll=1

Posted by: rg1283

They need a new station big time. Do any college PDs actually have holding cells?

Posted by: JMB1977

Holding cells?? HC Public Safety currently resides in a sub-basement inside the oldest building on campus.

Posted by: 5-0

Quote:

Originally Posted by JMB1977

Holding cells?? HC Public Safety currently resides in a sub-basement inside the oldest building on campus.

You know that we are high speed down here. Now get back to running the shift. Slacker.

edit: Holding cells assumes that the department is allowed to make arrests...

Posted by: Delta784

Quote:

Originally Posted by rg1283

Do any college PDs actually have holding cells?

Most do not, which is why many campus PD's have been able to attain the scams of all scams; CALEA accreditation. One of the big sticking points to getting that is the cellblock/holding area, so if you don't have one, that's a big obstacle out of the way.

Posted by: fscpd907

Quote:

Originally Posted by rg1283

They need a new station big time. Do any college PDs actually have holding cells?

Bridgewater State College has a holding cell...........we have to book and hold all our trash at FPD or MSP Framingham.

Posted by: mpd61

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delta784

Most do not, which is why many campus PD's have been able to attain the scams of all scams; CALEA accreditation. One of the big sticking points to getting that is the cellblock/holding area, so if you don't have one, that's a big obstacle out of the way.

Funny you should put it that way...

1. There are waivers for almost any of the CALEA standards for certification.
Many campuses have a legitimate booking area and bail or transport like
their municipal counterparts. Are you alluding that by meeting CALEA
standards, campus P.D.'s are somehow getting away with something?

2. Massasoit had completed about 90% of the requirements for CALEA
certification by the beginning of 2003. Yes, there were plans to waive the
cellblock area. Then of course the new regime didn't support the idea of
Accreditation at all, and it was totally abandoned. I think seeing where
the Massasoit P.D. went after that is a good example of what happens
when positive goals are abandoned. On the flip side of the coin, I believe
the Framingham State President is requiring CALEA certification as a
requirement for them to be armed.

Posted by: new guy

NUPD has no holding cells and is currently in the late stages of the state accreditation process. Although recieving a bypass on some of the accreditation standards is not the motive for not having holding cells, in reality, it does make accreditation significantly more attainable. The problem with not having holding cells is that it will often make you more selective than you would prefer to be in making arrest decisions. Outside agencies will usually have no issue with you bringing a nice felony pinch into there station but when you routinely fill up there cells with drunk and disorederly college students every weekend than you are likely to wear out your welcome. I am very suprised that UMASS Amherst doesn't already have holding cells. Good luck to them and any other Campus PD that is looking to build a new station. I think that as campus PD's upgrade there facilities in the future, we will see more and more of them adding holding cells.

Posted by: Delta784

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpd61

Are you alluding that by meeting CALEA
standards, campus P.D.'s are somehow getting away with something?

IMO, CALEA is a scam, a sham, and a ripoff. Can I make it any plainer than that?

Cash
Accepted from
Law
Enforcement
Agencies

Posted by: mpd61

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delta784

IMO, CALEA is a scam, a sham, and a ripoff. Can I make it any plainer than that?

Cash
Accepted from
Law
Enforcement
Agencies

O.K. cool, I can buy that...
I thought you were saying that the P.D. utilizing it was doing something they shouldn't. Sorry dude!

Posted by: Kilvinsky

UMass held a referendum on that very issue several years ago and though many on campus supported the idea (especially since a good portion of the arrests were students) it was shot down because, yes, you guessed it, "IT SENT THE WRONG MESSAGE!" and the administration didn't want to be seen as a department of corrections. Poppycock!

We USED to have temporary cells which came in very handy during the booking, especially if there was more than one arrestee. When we moved to the 6th floor of our current office building (oh, and basement) the booking room was equipped with a state of the art cuff bar and first class bench.

Well, whatever. Rumor has it we'll have our own building sometime in the near future. My estimations make that 2050, maybe June after commencement.

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