PBPD opens Wednesday on Shelby Road

DAR/Donna Farley

Poplar Bluff’s new police station will open at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12, according to officials.

“All services previously provided at the Poplar Street location will be provided at the new location on Shelby Road,” police officials said Tuesday.

Police services have been slowing moving into the 27,000-square-foot facility at 911 Shelby Road since August. The last department to move is expected to be communications.

Services for dispatch and 911 are currently housed at space on the campus of Three Rivers College. Officials have previously said they expect it to be November before technicians are available to relocate the 911 systems.

It’s been more than five years since dispatch moved to the TRC campus.

Police services have been provided from the Poplar Bluff Street location since 2015, when the Second Street complex that previously housed operations was deemed unfit.

The total cost for construction of the new facility was $11.2 million, including design, construction, engineering and furnishings, city manager Matt Winters has said previously. It came in almost $412,000 under the original projected budget.

Features include a vestibule open 24/7 at the front entrance, with interior doors leading into the building on a time lock. The vestibule also features a panic button that will lock the exterior doors, if residents feel they are in danger.

There are three interview and interrogation rooms and a waiting room, as well as a child-care room, which will be audio and video monitored 24/7.

The major case briefing room can be split into two rooms using soundproof dividers which double as dry erase boards.

Walls in sensitive areas are equipped with pressure strips slightly above the floor that sound an alarm if bumped into during a scuffle or emergency situation.

The dispatch room also serves as a tornado shelter. The reinforced walls can withstand a 3-second gust of up to 250 mph. The dual purpose room was partially paid for through a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant.

Grant funding also helped pay for an emergency generator that will keep the police department online during power outages.

Dispatchers, when they move in, will be able to see in real-time where officers are thanks to the help of the new technology and large wall-mounted monitors.