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CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO 2022 ATM& STMs 2022-1 & -2 Police The Lexington Police Department, which provides public safety services through a team of dedicated police officers, detectives, dispatchers, and support staff, is supported by the Town's Capital Program in the areas of communication systems, computer systems, and improvements to the facilities in which it is housed and trained. The primary, on-going Capital project for this Department is to provide a new Station as the current facility at 1575 Massachusetts Avenue is out of date in every way and fails to meet the needs of proper and complete policing for Lexington. (The DPF manages this project.) While the Design/Engineering (D/E) funds were appropriated in FY2019, the contractor had only partially completed the Schematic Design when the Select Board placed a hold on this project on October 5, 2020, by not supporting progress past Schematic Design as further feedback from the Town citizens was considered warranted regarding the future operations of the Police Department. When the hold was removed, the contractor reassigned its team to this project and additional funding was needed, and appropriated, to complete through Design Development and Contract Documents—and with a cost estimate. Besides addressing basic needs the existing facility cannot fulfill due to current overcrowding and functional inadequacy, the rebuild will include many other necessary enhancements to bring the Police Station to 21St–century standards. One of the crucial inadequacies in the current facility is that there is no secure entry to the building for a police vehicle transporting a prisoner. Industry standard is a secure, controlled entryway through which a vehicle could enter the building and then escort a person in custody directly to the booking and holding area("a sally port"). A garage will give the opportunity to offer cover and protection to the fleet. A modern evidence storage area and modern processing lab will allow the detectives to use the most up-to-date investigative measures when investigating crimes. After extensive input from various Town committees, the Police Station design incorporates numerous spaces that will give the Town and the Police Department flexibility for housing different, supportive, social services. An elevator will assist with ADA compliance. The design also reflects the communities input demanding a more inviting public area. A new community/training room, larger lobby space, and a public conference room are included in a more-welcoming environment. The design also provides locker room and bathroom spaces for male, female, and non-binary users. Among many other aspects, more glass walls have been incorporated into the design to promote a sense of transparency within the department. Throughout the design phase of this project,two locations for a new Station were considered: the current location at 1575 Massachusetts Avenue in the cluster of Town facilities and the now-Town-owned property at 173 Bedford Street. The latter had provided an interim facility ("swing space") for the Fire Department while its new facility was being built at its old location. The Bedford Street facility is to be the swing space while a new Police Station is built at its current location. This Committee unanimously supports the new building, as currently designed, at the Station's current location with swing space at the 173 Bedford Street property. (See the description of the DPF capital program on Page 30.) This Committee also believes that providing our police with updated, dynamic, and realistic Safety–Training is vital. It has been contemplated for several years to meet the Police Department's stated current training requirements for modern police work, as well as ensuring readiness to respond to threats. $50,000 for a Feasibility Study was appropriated for FY2016 (2015 ATM Article I I(s)). That study has been completed and found such a facility to be feasible at that site. The next step is evaluating how best to provide those services. Accomplishing that on the Town's property has the advantage of keeping our police in Town while attending that training and, therefore, allows needed prompt response. If shared with other police forces when not needed by our own,there would be outside payments to offset our capital and operating expenses. If so, we should revisit to see whether Federal or State funding may still be available for creating and offering the training on a regional basis. Re-evaluating in-Town training should be accompanied by evaluation of, instead, participating in another regional source for the same 19