The Bargersville Police Department moved into its new station at 4949 South Morgantown Road on July 6. Some construction work is finishing up while the department starts operations there, and a grand opening is planned for Aug. 5.
Bargersville’s police department moved into its new, bigger home last week — a project that was a long-time coming.
For years, the Bargersville Police Department had plans to build a bigger police station to accommodate the rapidly growing community. The department had been relying on temporary spaces in hand-me-down town buildings and rental properties for years as plans to build a new station were constantly put on the back burner.
Plans eventually got off the ground in 2021, and the week after the Fourth of July holiday weekend this year, the Bargersville Police Department moved into its new building on the northeast corner of Whiteland and Morgantown Roads, near the roundabout at the intersections. The move comes less than a year after construction started in November last year.
The new space is already a big improvement for the department and its 15 full-time officers, said Jeremy Roll, Bargersville Police public information officer. There are still some spaces under construction on the basement level and the sign has to go up outside, he said, but the department will operate there from now on. A grand opening is set for Aug. 5 and will be open to the public.
The previous police station, located in downtown Bargersville on Baldwin Street, was a small space located in a strip mall with other businesses. Roll described it as uninviting to the public, and difficult to find. The new space is more welcoming for people who need to come in for whatever reason.
“The front doors will be open 24/7, people need to come in here. There should be a phone available to them too,” Roll said.
The former space also had inadequate space for all officers to do their work, and there were not proper rooms for interrogations and family or child interviews.
The new station includes multiple interview rooms, a space for family interviews and an evidence room. It also has a large meeting room outfitted with new technology, which Bargersville police and other agencies will use for training.
Roll joked that the meeting room in the new station was about the size of the previous station. The entire building overall has more space for everyone, and it will allow for better proficiency at the department, as officers will no longer have to wait their turn for a computer terminal to file reports, he said.
“This is going to provide for growth for the department, and this will be for the future,” Roll said.
There is also ample space to better accommodate Bargersville’s three female police offices, who now have their own restroom.
For the department’s fleet of Teslas, there are six electric charging stations on the property — two of which can be used by the public near the front of the building. That is an upgrade from the one charger officers had to share at the old building for the department’s seven Teslas.
Location is also important for this new station. Bargersville has grown significantly in the last two decades, and officers have a lot more ground to cover. The town has grown in both population and in geographical size. The location at Whiteland and Morgantown Roads is more central to allow officers to get to and from different areas of town faster, Roll said.
Bargersville’s population reached 10,000 in 2021, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Twenty years ago, the town had a population of around 2,000. The original locations for the department were fine for five officers in 2007, with smaller ground to cover, Roll said, but that does not work today.
“It was a very small patrol round … you can probably ride a bike from one side of town to the next, but now, that’s gonna be a little bit more difficult,” Roll said.
