Charleston City Council approves new police headquarters

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) - The Charleston Police Department will have a new facility for their headquarters on Piedmont Road, at the former Truist bank building.

“I’m very excited. If I could do a cartwheel right now, I would,” Charleston Police Chief Scott Dempsey said.

Charleston City Council approved the more than $2 million purchase at Monday night’s meeting.

Chief Dempsey said it’s time for a change.

“We’re at the max capacity of every building we have stretched throughout the city. For us to be under one roof, we’ll be able to communicate much better, our operations will work so more very efficiently,” he said.

Council member Shannon Snodgrass and others thanked Charleston Mayor Amy Goodwin for all her hard work on a project she said was two years in the making.

“I think it will serve a great city service as well as to our men in uniform that have worked as you know in deplorable conditions for a long time. So I I wanna thank you, and hopefully we can get started,” Snodgrass said.

Shawn Taylor, a Council member and chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said the new location is needed because the police department has been scattered throughout the city.

“The way it’s located near the interstate and it has access for the police department and access to the river. It just makes sense,” Taylor said.

CPD is the largest municipal department in the state of West Virginia, and the city hopes the upgrades will help with recruitment.

“I think anybody deserves a quality workspace. The way I understand it now, each individual officer will actually have a desk of their own where they can write a report which is not available to them at this time,” Taylor said.

Chief Dempsey said, “When they see this state-of-the-art facility, they’re gonna like, wow I wanna work here. This is terrific so hopefully that’s, that’s what will happen.”

Chief Dempsey said the Public Safety Center will move the administrators out of City Hall and into one central location. He said the technology and security upgrades will help them solve crimes faster.