Lafayette Police should be fully moved-in to their new home, the Public Safety Center, within the next couple weeks. They are still partially operating out of the Lafayette City Building next door. The new police headquarters is not open to the public just yet, but there is one exception: people who register in advance for a tour.
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — Lafayette Police should be fully moved-in to their new home, the Public Safety Center, within the next couple weeks. They are still partially operating out of the Lafayette City Building next door.
The new police headquarters is not open to the public just yet, but there is one exception: people who register in advance for a tour.
"You're only going to see probably less than half of the building as far as what I can show you," Lafayette Police Lieutenant Justin Hartman told the very first batch of tour-goers Wednesday morning.
Lafayette Police Lieutenant Justin Hartman (right) shows the first group to tour the new Public Safety Center the building's second-floor outdoor area. "There's just so many things that, as you're driving by this place, you wouldn't recognize without coming in and actually seeing it for yourself," he said.
"There's just so many things that, as you're driving by this place, you wouldn't recognize without coming in and actually seeing it for yourself," he said.
The first four tours of Lafayette Police's new Public Safety Center are booked solid.
As we've previously reported, scheduled tours are happening every Wednesday from June through July. But, Lieutenant Justin Hartman says they could potentially extend the dates through October depending on interest.
It cost $51 million to create the 70,000 square foot building.
"We are so spoiled here at LPD to be able to have what we have, and then to be able to share it with the public," Hartman said after the tour wrapped up.
He told tour-goers Wednesday that you won't find another department like this in the state. One of the first civilians to see inside the building was Lafayette resident Jeannie Vester. She said the tour exceeded her expectations.
"If anything, I feel like it made us more 'big city'," she said. "So, you see on TV shows or movies, you know, they have these great spaces with meeting rooms and different things. So, yeah, I feel like it's brought us up to a different level now."
The massive structure also features a community room, a media room, and an intelligence operations room.
"I really love the outdoor space," Vester said. "I think it's a great community space. They said they would maybe do movie night there and some different things, stop by. I work downtown, so [I would] have lunch here. "
There's even a safe room at the main entrance for anyone who may feel like they're in danger to talk to a dispatcher.
"Once we're in here using the technology we have and the things that we've been given here, I think this is going to run as probably one of the best police departments in the United States," Hartman said.
As for the former Lafayette Police Department offices in the City Building, Hartman said that space will become an administrative center for the Lafayette Fire Department.Â
