Storage Solutions For Merged Police Departments
The small California municipalities of Larkspur and Corte Madera, both located just north of San Francisco, combined their police forces in 1980 as a cost-saving measure. But money was still tight and their public safety facility was far from perfect. “Our old building was almost like a mobile home,” said Captain Mike Norton. “It was legal but piecemealed together — we had stuff like wooden cabinets with locks on them.”
When funding was acquired for a new building in 2008, the chief called in the local Spacesaver affiliate to design storage solutions for evidence lockers, personal lockers, files, and sally port lockers. The chief had recently attended a walk-through of Sausalito’s new police department, which had been designed by Glass Architects, along with Systems and Space design consultant Catherine Belmont.
The planning team wanted to boost morale by investing in the officers’ comfort — and they saw the new building’s locker rooms as the best way to do that.
The defining feature of any locker room, of course, are the lockers themselves — so the planning team determined that the officers’ personal duty lockers should be a major focus of the project. They particularly liked the heavy-duty quality and versatility of Spacesaver’s FreeStyle® Personal Storage Lockers they had seen at the recently completed public safety building in Sausalito.
Designing an ADA-compliant locker room involves more than just installing an accessible locker. The Spacesaver consultant knew how to ensure the locker room aisles would provide adequate turning space for wheelchair users, how to design and locate a bench for comfort and accessibility, and how to provide appropriate and accessible areas for instances when privacy would be required.
The officers wanted to be able to charge electronic devices while they were off duty, so the devices would be fully charged and ready for use at the start of each shift.
Handguns and other valuables can be stored inside a lockable compartment within the locker, which adds a layer of security.
Sized just right for officers’ duty bags, drawers located on the bottom of each locker provide convenient access to the essentials that officers need to take out on patrol.
Double doors allow for quick and easy access to locker contents, and vents allow for ample air circulation around garments and gear.
After working hard to design efficient and attractive locker rooms, the planning team wanted to ensure that the rooms’ orderly appearance would be maintained over time. To prevent horizontal locker tops from being used for impromptu storage, the Spacesaver consultant specified that the locker tops should be finished with slanted steel toppers.
While the locker rooms were a top priority, a number of other areas also required well-designed storage solutions.
The recycled steel in Spacesaver products helped the new building achieve LEED platinum certification.
A single facility now accommodates the combined paper files of several municipalities, so a compact mobile system was installed to save space.
With perforated lockable doors store weapons in the SWAT room.
Sally port lockers provide secure handgun storage during suspect processing.
Evidence is secured in pass-through evidence lockers with doors in multiple sizes and a refrigerated compartment.
Since Spacesaver products are engineered and manufactured in the USA, the local affiliate was able to specify made-to-order solutions that met accreditation requirements, the officers’ specifications, the allotted space, and the budget.
500 Boulder Court, Ste. B
Pleasanton, CA 94566