SM Police Department Expanding Bureau Space

Work started last week to convert two former jail cells at San Marino Police Department into storage and expand space for the detectives’ bureau, and should take just about 2½ months to complete.
The work will remove the cells from the building and also expand the current detectives’ bureau by knocking out the wall to where the jails are located, giving them a total of 560 square feet of new space. SMPD employs three detectives and one sergeant who use that bureau.
“They haven’t been used since, I think, 2005,” said Cmdr. Richard Ward about the two jail cells. “In 2005, we started contracting with Alhambra [Police Department].”
The City Council approved the $45,000 project earlier this month, and work started last week with the customary tests for asbestos and lead. Mountjoy Construction, from Monrovia, is handling the project.
“It should be pretty straightforward,” said Gary Schaeffler with Mountjoy. “There shouldn’t be any issues.”
Police Chief John Incontro said removing the jails cells had an ancillary purpose to expand usable square footage. Because the department had the facilities, it had to ensure they were kept up to state regulations.
“We always had to conform to a state standard, even though we weren’t using them,” Incontro said. “A few years ago, we were found to be out of compliance on something and we had to rectify that.”
The violation proved to be minor, but Incontro said he wanted to avoid the potential for an expensive correction.
Work also will reposition the sergeant’s office and create a proper interview room for witnesses and suspects. Physical records will be stored in the jail cell area, which haven’t really been used for the past 12 years.
“We’re mandated to retain most of this stuff,” Ward explained, gesturing to the filing cabinets of records at the station, “so we have to have a space for it.”
The interview room will be a welcomed addition, Incontro said, especially for the privacy it offers to those giving statements or being interviewed by detectives.
“This is the first police station I’ve been in that didn’t have an interview room,” Incontro said. “It’ll be a much better way of doing things.”
While the work is being done, the detectives and sergeant have temporarily migrated to the emergency operations center behind City Hall. Incontro said the remodeling is being done for practical reasons, but there also will be additional benefits to having a larger and newer workspace for their small department.
“We’ve got great cops and they do great work,” he said.