Architect: Morton Grove Cops Need 80% More Space

The Morton Grove Police Department works out of a 100-year-old school that was retrofitted to be a police station in the 1980s.

It didn't have enough space when it moved in, Police Chief Mark Erickson says, and with the growing sophistication and increasing storage needs of police work, it's now in the "desperation stage," he adds. 

"It severely lacks space and is operationally inefficient," he said. "It lacks many necessities needed for current law enforcement operations."

Police have been hoping for a expanded facility for decades, and the village board last fall voted to However, Erickson said the village has not yet committed to a site.

What architect's space needs study found

FGM Architects, which designed the Skokie and Glenview police stations, recently completed a space needs analysis for the police department, and Erickson and Ray Lee of FGM presented the findings to the Morton Grove village board last week. 

Like Niles-Morton Grove Patch on Facebook

Lee said FGM Architecsts looked at existing data, interviewed police department employees, observed how department employees actually carried out their work, and then used their own knowledge base from past experience to separate "needs" from "wants." 

The architect's conclusion is that the police department needs 80 percent more space. It now occupies 19,590 square feet of space, and it needs 35,305, (which is the current square footage plus 80 percent more), to function efficiently, Lee said.

Why modern policing requires more space

The reasons, Lee said, include:

• The department needs 54 parking spaces for employees, plus 40 for events.
• More spaces must meet Amercans with Disabilities Act requirements. For example, a current bathroom in the station is 18 square feet. The ADA requires 50 feet so a wheelchair can maneuver.
• Considerable space is required for storing evidence. The law requires police to keep evidence for 25 to 50 years for some crimes, and forever for homicides. If, for example, a homicide occurs in a car, the department has to keep the whole car, Lee said.
• New crime-fighting technology requires more space--for example, the need for computer forensics. 
• Patrol officers carry a large array of equipment, which barely fits into current storage lockers. 
• Walking through an evidence room with a suspect is not safe, Lee said. If a drunk is flailing around, they could ruin a $20,000 piece of equipment.
• Cells are small and have bars and swing doors, which are considered dangerous by today's standards.
• The department needs three key spaces that it currently does not have: a place to store biohazards, a bond-out area for releasing prisoners (they currently walk out the same door that members of the public walk in), and juvenile holding. Juveniles are now processed in office space.

Lee reviewed options for what the department could do, including remodel the current building, which would eat up some parking space, at a cost of $11.9 million plus $1.5 million in HVAC work.  

A new building on a new site would cost $14 to $15 million, and that's the option Lee recommended, since spaces could be designed for what the department really needs, and could be modified in the future.

Lee noted many considerations go into choosing the site. If it's in a residential area, it would expose residents to listening to police test their lights and sirens, even late at night.

"The department is doing a yeoman's job working in their Police Station now," Lee said, "and the additional space would help them function even better."

Get Niles and Morton Grove news in a free daily email from Patch. Learn more.