The Houston Police Department expanded its usable space at City Hall with the addition of a new squad room that was completed last week.
The department’s officers all chipped in during the construction of the space, which required removing walls, redoing electrical wiring, putting up new walls, laying carpet, moving in new furniture and rearranging existing pieces, and lots of painting.
“I’m thrilled with this,” said HPD Chief Tim Ceplina. “This means every officer now has their own workspace, which they’ve never had before.”
Part of the project involved creating better holding areas for evidence and case paperwork.
“We’ve increased security for our evidence and files containing sensitive information,” Ceplina said. “I believe those are things that are very important to running a department in the best way possible.”
Ceplina said the project’s total cost was about $1,600.
“We recycled a lot of material and resources from other places around the building to save taxpayer money,” he said. “We tried to repurpose as many items as we could.”
Ceplina said Sgt. Brad Evans and officer Matt Woodmansee were particularly instrumental in helping create the new space.
“I’m proud of what all the guys did to make this happen,” he said, “but they bore the brunt of the load.”
Only about two weeks passed from the beginning of demolition to moving in desks.
“It’s just a better work environment now,” Ceplina said. “With the space we have, we’re now using it to maximum potential. With the level our officers perform at versus the level they’re tasked with by their caseload, this will help them be more productive.”