Politics & Government
Police Station Tour Shows Leaks, Rust, Safety Risks
The century-old school building jerry-rigged to house the Morton Grove PD is inefficient and cramped, chief says. And there's not enough room to store evidence and equipment in the dismal facility.
"Welcome to 1942," said Morton Grove Police Chief Mark Erickson as he showed a group of visitors the men's locker room in the department's aging, retrofitted station.
As he conducted a tour continued Monday, visitors saw holes in the floor, leaks in the ceiling, offices and equipment crammed into cubbyholes, safety risks, an evidence room crammed to the rafters, an ancient boiler and other evidence the building is what Erickson calls a "disaster."
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Many of the visitors were members of the Police Facility Committee, which is looking at options for a new or updated police building. The village board voted last fall to spend $1.15 million for a building on Lehigh, which is the likely location for the new police station.
An architect recently told the Morton Grove village board an extensive list of things wrong with the building.
Many of those were apparent on Monday's tour of the building, which is about 100 years old, and was converted into the police station in the 1980s. The station shares the building, the former Grove School, with Morton Grove Village Hall.
Some of the worst problems involve unsafe conditions for officers in the lockup area and the area where prisoners are transferred from a squad car into the building.
Other areas present problems for police, such as not having enough room to store evidence, and having to house expensive electronic equipment in an area where a drunk who's thrashing around could break it.
And the warren of small rooms in the building make it hard for police to communicate and interact in the course of their work. Roll call is held in what's basically the cafeteria, in a place police sometimes have to interview suspects who can then see sensitive information posted on the walls.
Plumbing in the washrooms is beyond fixing, Erickson said, and the lighting and ventilation are horrible.
Scroll through the photos and captions to see more of the inadequate conditions at the station.
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