By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
May 11, 2011

Where will Kansas City Police Department’s East Patrol relocate?

It’s a question on a number of minds and has yet to be answered.

When Kansas City voters renewed the Public Safety Sales Tax in November of 2010, Maj. Jerry Gallagher began searching for potential sites. Gallagher, who heads the Facilities Management and Construction Division, said it’s a daily effort.

“There’s a big opportunity for blight abatement. That’s a key issue for us,” Gallagher said of the future site. “We’d like to put it in a place where it will have the biggest impact on reducing crime, especially violent crime.”

One new feature of the future building will be a state-of-the art crime lab, which creates additional restrictions for potential sites. The lab’s equipment is sensitive to vibrations, which means the building can’t be too close to the interstate or railroad tracks.

“It’s about balancing the needs of the crime lab and East Patrol to come up with a location that will maximize efficiency hopefully for both divisions,” Gallagher said.

Since lab personnel testify in court, Gallagher said he’d like to find a location closer to the courthouse, so personnel spend less time on the road and more time in the lab.

Public input welcome

For 21 days, the public will be allowed to submit location ideas through www.saferkc.com/east. All of the suggestions will be considered, Gallagher said.

“I’m out there trying to come up with every possible site on my own, but I know I can’t do that,” Gallagher said. “I don’t want anybody to think we missed their idea or concept, so they can feel they at least had a chance to run their ideas past us…

“Since it’s a land acquisition process, we want people’s input, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to tell them right away what we’ve decided.”

Announcing it too early could drive up the cost of land, he explained.

Drawbacks to East Patrol’s current building

“East Patrol Division station has a multitude of issues stemming from it being an old building remodeled and rededicated as a police station years ago,” Project Officer Lee Rafferty said.

Located at 5301 E. 27th St. and built in 1949 as the police department’s FM radio station, the building was designed for radio dispatchers.

“It was not designed for efficiency and functionality to accommodate law enforcement personnel,” Rafferty said.

Gallagher called the building “severely undersized” with inadequate parking space.

“The community room’s not nearly big enough for what’s needed,” Gallagher said. “For community meetings, they can’t even park in the parking lot, they have to park across the street.”

With landlocked property, it’s difficult to expand parking, Rafferty said.

Every time it rains, the building leaks in the clerk’s area and the property crimes sergeant’s office. Windows are old and inefficient, electrical outlets are at maximum capacity, the sidewalks and other exterior cement surfaces are in “advanced decay,” and cracks are creeping along the exterior walls.

“The HVAC has constant problems which calls for constant repairs,” Rafferty said.

Ongoing sewer problems are also adding to the expense, he said.

Crime lab issues

East Patrol isn’t the only one with space issues.

The crime lab, located at 6633 Troost Ave., was built in the 1960s as a laboratory geared toward manufacturing drugs for a drug company.

“We tried to retrofit it and make it into a crime lab. Because of that, we run into a lot of problems because it’s not designed as a crime lab should be,” said Sgt. Kevin Kilkenny of the Kansas City Police Crime Laboratory.

Adequate storage space has always been an issue and there’s not a secure area to unload evidence, he said.

“The biggest problem when we got here was our heating and air conditioning,” Kilkenny said. “A lot of the instruments we have need to have a constant temperature and humidity and the HVAC system is inadequate.”

In addition to power outages, the HVAC system doesn’t always keep the correct temperature.

“During the spring and fall it’s a big deal because it’s (HVAC) usually out of whack somehow – either it’s too hot or too cold,” Kilkenny said.

With area traffic vibrations, lab employees must recalibrate their instruments every day, he said.

The current lab also has wet fire suppression, which would pose multiple problems in case of a fire.

Not only would the sprinkler system destroy computers and other equipment, it would ruin evidence, he said.

All of these issues will be eliminated with the new building. The new crime lab will boast 76,000 square feet, an increase of 44,000 square feet, and will be designed to meet future and current needs. East Patrol Division will be modeled after the new Metro Patrol Division and will feature 28,000 square feet and 180 parking spaces for police and crime lab employees. Projected cost for the project is $57 million, funded by the Public Safety Sales Tax.

Asked how long it will take to finalize a location, Gallagher said it will depend on Kansas City’s City Council.

KCPD will present a list of options to the council and explain the pros and cons of each, in addition to the attributes KCPD needs. The council will have the final say on the location.

“I’m hoping three years from now we’ll have a finished product,” Gallagher said.