A dispatcher answers a call in the Agawam Police Headquarters.
Reminder Publishing photo by Sarah Heinonen
AGAWAM — Walking into the lobby at 1070 Suffield St., the quiet space belies the flurry of activity that will take place behind the secure doors when the Agawam Police Department finishes its transition to the new Police Headquarters.
The property was purchased from HUB International for $2.17 million in 2022.
With the extensive renovations that were required to bring the building in line with police needs, the project cost about $13.6 million. Still, Mayor Christopher Johnson said that it was about half the cost of a newly constructed station.
The former school at 681 Springfield St. in Feeding Hills has been the home of the Agawam Police Department since the 1980s. It was never designed to be a police station. “They went into that building, they had a budget, they lived within that budget,” Johnson said of the minimal upgrades made for police use. “We got close to 50 years out of it.” Prior to being in Feeding Hills, the department was housed in the Town Hall.
Aside from the old station not being up to the standards of a modern police force, Johnson said the department simply outgrew the old space. In 1965, he said, the Agawam Police Department received fewer than 2,500 calls. Last year, about 30,000 calls came into the station. Johnson said emergency medical calls have “exploded” over the last decade as the population ages.
The exterior walls of the building are the only parts that remain from its history as an insurance agency. The station now has a U-shaped design and improved workflow, Johnson said.
“Oh, absolutely,” agreed Agawam Police Lt. Edward McGovern. There are separate entrances for the public and police personnel. All public needs can be addressed in the lobby of the new 18,756-square-foot station. There is a private conference room to speak to officers, an office for Behavioral Health Network staff, who ride along on calls with a mental health aspect, and a kiosk to apply for licenses and the records desk behind security glass.
“This facility is sized for growth,” said Johnson. The department now consists of 54 officers and eight civilians; however, there is room for 70 individuals at the new station. There are ample offices, a laboratory area for testing crime scene evidence and locker rooms with space for officers’ belongings, a boot drawer, an outlet to charge their radios and firearm storage.
At the rear of the building, there is a two-bay sally port. Police transporting an arrested individual can drive their cruiser directly into the building, eliminating the opportunity for someone to escape when taken out of the police vehicle. Directly next to the sally port is a large booking area, with six standard cells and one cell for juveniles. Despite the ability to hold that many people, Johnson said the Agawam Police rarely hold people for more than a few hours before they are transferred into the custody of the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department.
“We’ve integrated the latest technology here. We have a dedicated fiber optic internet service,” Johnson said, adding that the building’s generator can keep the station operational without external power for 72 hours.
More than 80% of the furniture and equipment from the old station was reused, which saved money for the town. However, one area with all new equipment is the dispatch center, which is already in operation. “We wanted to upgrade to a more modern dispatch system,” Johnson said. Three of the four dispatch stations were purchased with a grant. The fourth one was bought by the town. Dispatchers can sit or stand at their desks, surrounded by several screens that relay details from incoming calls. There is also a central screen on which the dispatch supervisor can review data from incoming calls. Johnson said the new dispatch stations are “the best out there.”
The dispatch center was designed to be self-contained, with its own restroom and kitchenette, so dispatchers do not have to leave the room throughout their shift.
McGovern said his favorite aspect of the new building is “all the evidence storage.” At the old station, roughly 40,000 pieces of evidence are stored in three different spaces. In the new building, all evidence will be contained in a large climate-controlled room, filled with high density mobile shelving units and complete with refrigerated storage for biological samples. The room is secure, with a pass-through built into the wall for officers to use upon returning to the station. Access to the room is restricted.
Moving the evidence from the old station to the new one will be a complex undertaking, as the chain of evidence must be maintained at all times. Items will need to be verified, logged out to the individual who is transporting them, logged in at the new station and reverified.
The sheer volume of evidence and records have necessitated that the Police Department only transfers what is required to the new station.
As such, Johnson said the Police Department is working with the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office to determine which documents and evidence are no longer needed and can be destroyed. McGovern explained that the law requires police to retain evidence for a specified amount of time based on the crime it was involved in.
Other departments within the station are consolidated, as well. The records and servers now have dedicated rooms, rather than being spread between three spaces as they are now. Most records are computerized, but Johnson said the oldest records, those from the 1960s, would not survive the scanning process, so the physical copies must be stored.
The process of transferring all services to the new station is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. The building is then expected to meet the Police Department’s needs for at least the next 50 years.
For an in-person look at the new Police Headquarters, the public can visit the station for a ribbon cutting and open house on Dec. 13, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
