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Bluffton’s current law enforcement facility is so cramped, police officers have to walk prisoners through office space right by the station’s employees’ desks. Officials have carved extra space out of its 5,000-square-foot facility, including building cages in the garage area of the building and leasing some trailers to hold evidence.
“We’ve been as creative as we know how to be,” Chief David McAllister said.
Soon those problems will be a thing of the past. This spring, Bluffton began construction on its new law enforcement facility, a 20,000-square-foot facility that will include new holding cells, new technology and a crime lab. Construction was well underway this summer, and the building is expected to be completed by early March, 2011.
The $6.3 million building will include three four-person holding cells, which can hold prisoners up to six hours before they’re transferred to the Beaufort County jail; modern processing equipment; a lab that can process complicated evidence such as dried blood, DNA and fingerprints; plenty of storage space; and a training room large enough to hold the whole department.
The building will also include a betterdesigned security system that will segregate the prisoners from the office staff, McAllister said.
“You don’t want to mix the general public with those who are potentially under arrest or will be with us a little while longer,” he said.
The new holding facilities will allow the department to capture fingerprint information to put on file with the state for even minor offenses.
The project is being paid for by a Town of Bluffton bond issue.
