The Herndon Police spent the end of last week moving furniture, equipment and everything else into the station's new home at 397 Herndon Parkway.
At approximately 35,000-square feet, the new station is almost triple the size of the former station at 1481 Sterling Road.
Because the old station was small in comparison, many of the department's facilities either operated off site, or in rooms with many purposes — like the lunchroom doubling as the gun cleaning room.
The town shop, located next door in the Department of Public Works building, was used by the police to house found property, patrol bikes and vehicle storage.
A separate vehicle storage room was created at the new location for cars that are admitted as evidence. The bicycle patrol squad has its own room, with a back ramp entrance, where bikes will hang on the wall and lockers are available for officers to hang their gear.
Other uses that were once off site and now included in the station are a polygraph room and a motor unit — both previously held at the Herndon Municipal Center; criminal investigations — formerly done at 150 Elden Street and enough space to hold training, recruitment, identification and storage — all of which used to be housed in the existing trailer in the adjoining parking lot.
Additional highlights include a criminal investigative lab where chemical reactions can be conducted under a fuming hood — they were previously done in an old fish aquarium, according to Toussaint Summers Jr., Chief of Police.
There will be enough rooms and space for each sergeant to have a cubicle and desk, the lieutenants to have their own office space and dispatch and records personnel to have separate desks and work areas.
The station is lined with bullet proof paneling and top of the line security that can track who has entered and exited a room based on a security key card. There will also be a much larger property storage room, that will offer a separate entrance and exit for individuals picking up confiscated possessions. Currently individuals wait in the small entrance while an officer walks through unlocked doors to gather the materials. There are also additional side rooms where investigations can be conducted in private, where suspects can be separated for investigations and where officers can watch polygraph tests through a two-way mirror.
"The new station is safer because we are around everybody else," said Sgt. Jerry Keys, public information officer. "It's easier because we're all at the same place and it saves time and money."
Even with working out kinks, such as keys not matching locks, Keys said the new station should be fully operational by this week, adding dispatch has been operating out of the new station since the middle of last week.