Flagler County Sheriff’s Office moves into new headquarters in Bunnell

The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office welcomed its deputies house as they moved into the company’s new headquarters final week, a $20 million, two-story constructing in Bunnell with loads of room to develop. 

The sheriff’s workplace operations middle and District 3 workplace is a 51,615-square-foot constructing on 8.41 acres close to the Flagler County Government Services Complex. 

“This new building will allow us to better serve our community and have a more efficient, effective and reliable building for our employees to work from for decades to come,” acknowledged Sheriff Rick Staly in a press launch. “I am grateful for the Board of County Commissioners and the design and construction team for working together to make this day possible.” 

Previous protection:Flagler County Commissioners unanimously approve $20 million sheriff’s operations middle

Related:Flagler to construct FCSO ops middle by itself web site

The constructing homes administrative workplaces, convention areas, interview rooms, crime scene laboratories and proof storage. 

“This is a day to celebrate the reunification of our team after 4.5 years of working in cramped, borrowed and decentralized offices stretched across three buildings,” Staly mentioned on the ribbon-cutting ceremony, based on the discharge. “Despite these working conditions, I want to commend our resilient team that delivered a 54% reduction in crime for our community since 2017.”

Staly thanked the County Commission previous and current, the town of Bunnell and plenty of others, together with the taxpayers, for the new constructing.

The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Operations Center is the primary in Northeast Florida to have a “Faraday room,” which blocks electromagnetic fields, stopping suspects from remotely deleting information from cellphones and different gadgets saved inside.

The constructing additionally features a 2,760-square-foot multipurpose coaching room which shall be used for group occasions in addition to in-house legislation enforcement coaching for deputies and different companies. 

It has a bodily health middle with an adjoining defensive techniques coaching house devoted to former Flagler County Sheriff Homer Brooks, who died after struggling a coronary heart assault whereas on obligation in 1965. The health middle has $75,000 price of health tools donated by Dwayne Sizemore, who closed a fitness center he owned in Flagler County, Staly mentioned.

Staly hopes that the bodily health middle will encourage deputies and different staff to remain match, based on the discharge.

The constructing may even have males’s and ladies’s lockers and showers, a primary for the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, so deputies can bathe after a exercise.

New operations middle options high-tech bells and whistles

The constructing was designed to face up to a “Category 4-plus hurricane” and has a whole-building generator, Staly mentioned. A Category 4 hurricane generates winds of 130 to 156 mph, based on the National Weather Service.

The constructing has a state-of-the-art crime scene investigation and proof space with a contemporary laboratory. The vehicle-processing storage features a automobile carry. 

The proof space has separate air flow so seized medication, notably marijuana, is not going to fill the whole constructing with odors, Staly mentioned. 

The sheriff’s workplace actual time crime middle began in what Staly described as mainly a closet in 2018. But Staly mentioned it now has a state-of-the-art room stuffed with expertise to observe essential incidents in actual time. If management will not be on scene, they’ll watch feeds from physique cameras and drones, Staly mentioned. 

The operations middle has room to develop with pre-planned areas for 2 extra wings which can add 30,000 sq. toes when wanted, based on the discharge. 

The advanced features a separate 6,298-square-foot buying and logistics constructing, which shall be used for storing sheriff’s workplace autos, together with SWAT autos, boats and the cell command middle, protecting them out of the climate and prolonging their usefulness. 

Sheriff’s workplace staff had been unfold out figuring out of Kim C. Hammond Justice Center, the Jail Administration Building and the Government Services Building since they had been compelled to depart the previous operations middle in 2018 after quite a few staff fell ailing presumably resulting from mildew in the constructing. Employees had solely been in the outdated operations middle for two.5 years earlier than they moved out.   

The new constructing was designed by Architects Design Group of Winter Park, which has labored on greater than 350 public security initiatives all through Florida and the United States, based on the discharge. Ajax Building Company of Jacksonville was the development contractor.

The constructing’s handle was a nod to the previous and the current. It’s handle is 61 Sheriff E.W. Johnston Drive in Bunnell. Ernest Walton “E.W.” Johnston was the county’s first sheriff, serving from 1917 to 1925. 

The 61 refers to Flagler County being the 61st county created by the state Legislature. 

The operations middle is Building 1 on the property, making its official handle 61-1 Sheriff E.W. Johnston Drive. 

The 61-1 can be the sheriff’s name signal when speaking through radio with deputies or dispatch. 

Staly mentioned the constructing is a supply of pleasure for the company’s workers and deputies. Staly recalled in his speech a dialog he had with a deputy concerning the constructing.

Staly mentioned: “He informed me that as a long-time worker of the sheriff’s workplace, he by no means thought that in his profession we’d have such knowledgeable constructing to work from! So, with that, I say to our staff — welcome house!