Station Proposal

Current Police Station

In 1977, the Freetown Police Department moved from out of the basement of the Town Hall in Assonet and into the "new" facility on Chace Road. Since then, nothing has changed. The building was constructed just as it stands today, by cutting corners and not allowing for expansion. Freetown has drastically changed and grown exponentially in the last 40 years, the police department now has more personnel and there is a higher demand for quality police services. The current facility prohibited that from being a reality. Luckily, on December 1, 2018, Freetown residents voted to approve the new $12 million police station, to be built across the street on Memorial Drive.

Police Station Proposal

Current Facility

Year Built: 1977
Construction: Stacked cinder block and concrete
Insulation: None, built into the side of a hill
Floors: One
Total Sq. Feet: 3,000
Sq. Feet Open for Expansion: None.
Office Space: 3 Rooms
- Chief's Office also includes personnel files and equipment storage
- Sergeants Office includes 2 desks shared by 5 Sgt's, along with storage for police reports, equipment and access to the armory.
- Lieutenant/Detective Office is comprised of two desks, office equipment and filing cabinets squished into a room meant for one person. This room also has access to the property and evidence room.
Officers room is named "the multi-purpose room" as it serves as the break room, report room, kitchen, evidence processing room (including narcotics on the same table we eat off of), equipment storage, Police Union office (aka: a desk) and meeting room.
Booking and Detention areas:
- No sally port to securely remove detainees from the cruisers.
- Both areas are attached to main hallway and are within earshot of the front lobby and public areas.
- Holding cells are out of date, not secure and have failed inspections by the Dept. of Public Health for suicide hazards.
- Current cell design does not allow us to hold multiple male and female or juveniles at the same time as they must be sight and sound secure per MA state law.
There is only one interview room, which is not equipped with adequate sound proofing material or audio/visual equipment. This also serves as an additional holding cell in the event of overflow or male/female/juvenile arrestees.
Security measures are non-existent at the station. Access to the station interior is not securely protected from the exterior, the camera system constantly fails and there is no separation between the public and police parking.
Nothing has been done to accommodate the addition of female staff and police officers in the last 30 years. All police personnel share one locker room, which is also only one of two bathrooms in the station.
Overflow storage, including police records and police equipment, is held in outdoor shipping containers secured with padlocks.

New Facility

Estimated Longevity: 50 years, plus
Construction: Rain screen, fiber cement clapboard
Insulation: Continuous throughout the entire building
Floors: Two
Total Sq. Feet: 25,992 (17,294 finished area)
Sq. Feet Open for Expansion: 8,695
Total Project Costs: $12,378,602.30
- Offset from Overlay: $1,500,000.00
- Offset from Free Cash: $1,378,602.30
- Offset from Capital Stablization: $3,000.000.00
- Total Cost for Financing: $6,500,000.00
- Tax Increase (average) of $96.12 over 20 years.
Community Room: 70 person training, community meeting room and Emergency Operations Center.
Office Space:
- Administration - separated from the patrol and investigative divisions, the Administration wing will allow for easy access for the public to meet with the Chief, Lieutenant and other command staff without disrupting the day-to-day operation of the police department. This will also allow for more secure and efficient evidence and property management.
- Investigations - This division requires the most privacy in order to run effectively. With the new design, the detectives will be away from the daily operations and will allow for interviews to be conducted in private to better encourage the flow of information pertaining to criminal investigations or other private matters involving the detectives.
- Patrol - The largest of the divisions, will allow for Sergeants to run roll call at the start of each shift to pass along information and conduct training. The patrol division can run independently from the rest of the department from the minute the walk into the station for work until the officer leaves. This separation will allow for arrests to be made away from the public view, without interfering citizen interactions such as firearms licensing, interviews or other sensitive police-related matters. This will also include a larger armory area, secured firearms cleaning area for officers and more storage space for cruiser maintenance, collision reconstruction and K-9 operations.
180 foot emergency radio network radio tower
Increased security measures including key FOB's, secured doors and storage, a sally port, state approved and compliant detention cells.

New Station Proposal Video

Current Station Pictures

"Multi-Purpose Room" used for reports, meal breaks, roll call, training, Union business and storage.

The Evidence and Property Room has quickly become overwhelmed with the amount of items needing to be stored.

Booking Room is full of safety hazards and is also the same area where firearms license applicants need to be brought for fingerprinting.

Broken, ineffective locking cell doors have resulted in the "temporary" fix with hinges and pad locks.

Cell #1 is the only operational cell. Both cells have failed DPH inspections because of safety and suicide hazards.

Cell #2 is currently out of service because of a broken and unsafe metal bed.

View 1 of the attic space, which is also used for additional storage.

View 2, "add-on" HVAC vents are left hanging and poorly installed.

View 3, insulation damaged by water and mold is left to rot inside rafter voids.

View 4, telecommunication wires are unsecured and poorly installed and left hanging from rafters and strewn about the floor.

View 5, mold was found and "removed" 2 years ago; however, although not classified as the dangerous "black mold," the mold "could not be identified."

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