Ready for the 21st century
The Lakewood Sheriff’s Station opens its doors to the community
Open house on Saturday, February 23 at 11:00 a.m.  (February 1, 2008) At the end of a two-year project to expand and modernize the Lakewood Sheriff’s Station, Captain Dave Fender and his Team Lakewood deputies are eager to show the community the scope of sheriff’s law enforcement in Lakewood.
On Saturday, February 23 beginning at 11:00 a.m., they will hold a celebratory open house at the station. Tours will be held from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. They will show residents how law enforcement has changed in the 50 years since Lakewood first contracted for sheriff’s deputies. Sheriff’s K-9 units, county fire apparatus, and the department’s SWAT team and bomb squad are among the public safety units that will be on display in the station’s parking area off Civic Center Way. Visitor parking is in the Lakewood Civic Center parking lot (accessible from Candlewood Street and Del Amo Boulevard). Entrance to the open house is at the rear of the station. 
Station project background The county-funded project was overseen from initial design though construction completion by the city’s Public Works Department. The expansion of the station added more than 19,000 square feet of office and operations space, created a new Emergency Operations Center, modernized the station’s dispatch/911 response unit, and replaced the station’s aging service garage. During the open house, family members can talk with representatives from Lakewood Neighborhood Watch and other crime prevention organizations to learn about home and car security, disaster preparedness, and Lakewood's volunteer opportunities. Other participating organizations include the California Highway Patrol, the Long Beach Police Department, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and Lakewood’s animal control provider. And, everyone can enjoy hot dogs and sodas for a nominal fee and free entertainment. Public safety’s future The sheriff’s station opened in 1959. It was remodeled and expanded in 1985. Today, nearly 300 deputies and civilian personnel are based at the facility, serving the law enforcement needs of Lakewood and four other cities with a combined population of more than 275,000 residents. The $23-million project was completed without a new tax, a tax increase, or special assessment. The two-story addition to the station (which became operational in 2007) is the most visible aspect of its modernization. But the station’s many technological improvements are designed to meet Lakewood’s changing crime suppression and disaster response needs. The station’s Forensic Video Lab and Crime Analysis unit uses sophisticated computer technology to analyze crime patterns and identify criminal suspects from video evidence. The new Emergency Operations Center is a dedicated facility with a disaster communications system, satellite telephones, and workstations for disaster response coordinators. | 
Construction joined the station’s two older structures, and added about 19,000 square feet of usable space.
The station’s lobby will offers a welcoming introduction to Lakewood law enforcement under a two-story skylight that is both inviting and practically designed to assist the public, attorneys, bail bondsmen, and the family members of prisoners, all at the same time.
The report writing room includes nine work stations, allowing deputies to efficiently complete reports and get back on the street.
| |
|
Lakewood Sheriff’s Station previewed midway through construction
 (February 24, 2007) The future of Lakewood law enforcement is now, say Sheriff ’s Department officials. It’s bigger. It’s connected to 21st century crime fighting technologies. And it’s better prepared for disasters, too.
Deputies are eager for their move in to begin. However, Lakewood residents recently received an advance look at the newly expanded station for themselves. The preview “open house” on Saturday, F ebruary 24 offered tours of the facility, focusing on the 20,000 square feet of new offices that will house the station’s dispatch center, command staff, and most of the station’s compliment of deputies and civilian employees. “This really is a special project. I think it’s already the envy of the entire Sheriff ’s Department,” notes Captain Dave Fender, who has commanded the station since April 2002. He’s taken County Supervisor Don Knabe and Sheriff Lee Baca on tours through the project in recent weeks to show them the station’s rapid progress. Knabe and Baca were responsible for securing $18 million in county funding for the expansion and modernization of the station. Another $400,000 in federal funding came with the assistance of Congresswoman Linda Sánchez. City officials are optimistic that additional county funding can be found this year to replace the station’s aging service garage. The garage replacement is expected to follow renovation of the station’s original command and dispatch center. That work will Captain Dave Fender is eager to move in. begin in early March. 
| Ground Preparation March 2006 |
Lakewood’s Public Works Department is overseeing all aspects of the design and construction work under an innovative agreement with the county. When deputies were temporarily displaced during the work, the city also provided them office space.
County funding for Lakewood Station vehicle maintenance facility approved 
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, at the request of 4th District Supervisor Don Knabe, has approved a plan to replace the service garage at the Lakewood Sheriff’s Station with a new, 5,388-square-foot facility. The new garage will cost an estimated $3 million (funded with $1.5 million from Supervisor Knabe’s discretionary capital budget and $1.5 million from Sheriff Leroy Baca’s fixed assets budget). The new garage represents the final piece in a $20.7-million, county-funded modernization program that began in February 2006. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2007 and without additional taxes or assessments. More . . . |
Captain Dave Fender is looking forward to making the move to the new, two-story structure that knits together what had been two separate buildings. “The new station layout is operationally much stronger than before. It puts everything that affects the work of deputies in a single facility built around core public safety functions. This is a 24-hour-a-day operation, and it’s important that deputies have the resources at hand to make their work more productive.”
Sometimes, the improvements are a matter of new conveniences. In the station’s expanded locker area--where deputies will enter and leave the station as their shift begins and ends--outlets in the lockers let deputies charge their battery-powered equipment. Small bunk rooms (in separate areas for male and female deputies) will offer a quiet rest area for deputies who must work back-to-back shifts. Pneumatic tubes--an old technology, but one that still works--will speed paperwork from the operations area to the station’s clerical staff. 
| Building work September 2006 |
Other improvements fit the station to respond more effectively. Deep inside the station, a dedicated Emergency Command Center will coordinate disaster response in the event of a natural or manmade catastrophe. New interview rooms provide secure areas for crime victims and criminal suspects. A surveillance area keeps juvenile detainees away from adult suspects. A greatly expanded communications and dispatch center will improve the coordination of sheriff ’s units in the field. The station’s new lobby will offer a welcoming introduction to Lakewood law enforcement under a two-story skylight.
The preview “open house” on February 24 will tour all of the “behind the scenes” improvements at the Lakewood station: deputy training area, briefing rooms, new Team Lakewood offices, and the detective and narcotics bureaus. Technological improvements--signaled by miles of blue network cables snaking from walls and ceilings--update a building where remodeling in 1984 predated the digital revolution. The expansion project, begun in February 2006, effectively doubles the size of the station (which first opened in 1959). The station protects more than 260,000 residents in five neighboring cities: Artesia, Bellflower, Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood, and Paramount. “When you put it all together, we’ll truly have a 21st century station for Lakewood,” adds Captain Fender. |
