MCCORDSVILLE — After years of operating a police department out of Town Hall, the new $12 million McCordsville Police Department is complete. Officials held a public open house last week and a ribbon cutting ceremony Oct. 24.
Chief Paul Casey said the new facility was created out of a strong need for law enforcement to be able to better serve the community.
“The project started in early 2023 with a feasibility study and continues still today,” Casey said. “While the building is completely done, we continue to work through punch list items before we can start the process of moving in.”
Casey noted that while no official move date has been set he’s glad the facility is operational and is basically ready to go, which he said benefits the department and the community.
“The Town Council, the Metropolitan Board, the building corporation and town manager Tim Gropp helped approve and push forward a brand new police station that will greatly benefit the operations and the recruitment abilities of the McCordsville Police Department,” Casey said.
The town’s police department has operated out of a space at the McCordsville Town Hall, 6280 West 800N, in a space of about 1,800 square feet. The new station, 7520 Civic Drive, off of CR 750N, is on the south side of McCord Square and is about 18,000 square feet. The facility includes an indoor gym, an indoor shooting range and space for growth as the town continues to grow.
“Our largest needs were in evidence and working space,” Casey said. “We have many features in the new building that do not exist in our current building.”
Some of those spaces include the new indoor gun range, a workout facility, break room, training room sized for current growth, along with multiple interview rooms and conference space.
“To put things in perspective our current facility is 1,500 to 2,000 square feet and the new facility is 17500 to 18,000 square feet,” Casey said. ,
Gropp was the one who helped the town figure out the financial piece of the new build and noted there were no new taxes needed to get the facility up and going.
“We worked within our budget,” Gropp said. “The project stayed pretty much on the budget target, and it’s been a pretty smooth project overall, and you know the department has never really had a spot of their own as they’ve been tucked in a room here or a space there.”
Gropp noted it was obvious town officials had to give the police department its own facility.
“It’s a functional police station. We haven’t had that, and I love that we put it right in the center of town,” Gropp said.
Seeing the final result after projecting what they wanted and needed, Gropp said, shows they did a good job in figuring out what kind of police department was needed some 30 to 40 years down the road.
“You want to make sure you are building for the future,” Gropp said. “You go through a feasibility study and then you adjust and start making plans, and it’s always so nice to see a project like this come to life and being realized.”
Once the final punch list is complete, Casey and officers will move into the new police station. While the facility officers more for officers, there is not a holding pen as officials said they immediately take people arrested straight to the county jail.
Casey noted while there are many things to like about the new police department, he thinks having a shooting range at the facility was one of the more important things they added to the design.
“We are very excited to have our indoor range, which will serve many purposes, including a place to have our VR (virtual reality) training as well as an additional place to do defensive tactics. The gun range portion, however, will likely not be operational until mid-2025,” Casey said. “I think the indoor range, workout facility, training room, evidence processing, evidence storage, interview space and garage are just a few of the aspects I like the best.”
Officials say it’s going to be nice for the department to be able to do their training on-site, and that there is room to grow with a capacity for some 70 officers.
For Gropp, he’s excited to get the space from the old police department in town hall back for the town to use.
“We’re growing just as the police are growing, and we’ve got a plan to absorb that space,” Gropp said.
