The Walpole Police Station, located at 972 Main Street, was originally built in the early 1880's as the Town Hall. Built on land purchased in June of 1880 from E.D. Clap, the three story, brick building, was dedicated in early 1881. One hundred years later, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places because of it's architecture, and as the site of historical government events held in the 17th century.
Heavy rains once again brought rivers of rain water into the Walpole Police Station, flowing through the walls and into the Maintenance Room, Squad Room, Locker Room and Booking Room. Accompanying the river was the constant "thud" of dripping water as it comes in through the many holes in the building and is caught by the contraption created by Maintenance to funnel it out of a second floor window.
Some pictures, but they don't do it justice
Here are the most commonly asked questions:
The police station’s location next to the Johnson Middle School will enhance the safety of the children and the school. Like all schools, we receive complaints about speeding traffic. We assign officers when available to conduct traffic enforcement, but having a police station down the street will mean having a police presence virtually all the time, thus reducing problems.
Officers primarily respond to calls from their assigned areas, not the station, but wherever they respond from, their first responsibility is to get there safely. Officers often have to drive through active school zones on emergency calls. They are very careful wherever they are but obviously even more careful around children.
Not much. We have 45 full-time employees that work 24-hours a day, seven-days a week. This means on average, there are about six employees at a time plus visitors. The proposed building would have a training/community room, which can seat approximately 50 people but won’t be used every day.
A combined facility downtown was initially considered, but an architect review of the site determined the space was inadequate. The downtown site could only accommodate a much smaller building creating compromises for both police and fire departments and eliminating the possibility of future expansion. This site would also eliminate 100 parking spaces currently available to the public for downtown purposes. In addition, the construction phase would create traffic and accessibility problems for the entire downtown area and businesses.
The downtown and Robbins Road sites were the only two sites available, owned by the town, and not committed to other uses. Looking at sites that are not town owned and/or committed to other uses only confuses the issue and is unrealistic. The process of taking possession and/or control of these sites could take years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.
Ideally, it would be nice to be in the center, but as towns get more congested, land becomes more valuable and choices have to be made. Of all Town services, a police department is the one agency that does not need to be in the center and in fact many communities are building police stations outside the center. Canton, Franklin, Medway, Medfield, Sharon, and the proposed Police/Fire station in Foxboro are all outside the town centers for this very reason.
For comparison purposes, if your home were assessed at $350,000, your first year taxes would increase by $98.70, or $24.68 quarterly. If your home were assessed at $450,000, your first year taxes would increase by $126.90, or $31.73 quarterly. The debt-exclusion has a 20-year life and decreases each year.
Wrentham (1,000), Hopkinton (1,000), No.Attleboro (640), Foxboro (634), Walpole (588), Norwood (418).
Norwood is the only recent facility built that has less space per officer than Walpole's proposal.
-Take A Tour-
You can take a peek inside the station below. Simply click on the titles below to see the various parts of our station.
-Dispatch- The heart of the police station where calls are received and radioed to officers in the field. It is also where all 911 calls for the entire town are handled, where incidents are logged, and serves as a reception area.
-Booking- This is where prisoners are brought for processing when arrested. Complete with digital camera and breathalyzer.
-Squad Room- The vast majority of officer's work occurs here, including, roll-call, report writing, meetings, phone calls and acts as a break room.
-Detectives- This office houses the work stations of the detective division.
-Offices- There are several small administrative offices for the Command Staff, like this one.
-Conference Room- This second floor room is for, well, conferences.
-Training- The third floor of the station has a small room where officers receive training in various subjects.
-Court Office- There are also 2 offices on the third floor for officers assigned to special duties, and require added space, such as the Court Officer and Traffic Safety Officer.
