UW-L police welcome a
long-awaited new home with the addition of a new parking structure on campus.
“After operating from a 1,600
square-foot house for as long as I can remember, it’s good to be able to
stretch-out into 8,200 square feet,” notes UW-L Police Sergeant Scott
McCullough. “This is great.”
The university police force of
around 15 members made do in a cramped, single-story house across the lot from
Wimberly Hall until the move into the new building just before the Fall 2013
semester.
Campus cops are feeling revitalized
after utilizing nearly every inch of their former home for multiple purposes.
“Aside from using the kitchen in the old building as a meeting room, it wasn’t
uncommon to be interviewing a suspect in there with the smell of someone’s
lunch still in the air,” McCullough adds. “Not only was it impractical and
inconvenient, but embarrassing at times. We also relied heavily on the city
police space for things like interviewing and booking. Now we have our own
facilities for all that.”
Recently, the UW-L Police
Department hosted an open house in the new headquarters on the south east
corner of the new covered parking ramp. The ramp is located on the north end of
campus between Farwell and La Crosse Streets.
The new building not only has its
own booking area, but two interview rooms, an armory, plenty of office space, a
reception area, and a large media room. Additionally, the modernized dispatch
and communications room features state-of-the-art equipment, on the same
platform as all other area law enforcement agencies.
Sealing-off operational areas from
public space in the building provides the force with a disaster and emergency
response facility as well. “What now becomes the command and control center
here, when locked-down, is blast, impact, and bullet-proof,” adds parking
manager Victor Hill.
The new structure has not only
given the force a new home, but also doubled available parking space for
students and staff. “We had roughly 300 uncovered spaces there previously. Now
we have 600 stalls, and the ramp is designed to be expanded upon,” notes Hill.
With the addition of two new levels in the next few years that number of spaces
will increase to roughly 1,000. “After parking space being so restricted in the
past, so many new spaces available is a fun problem to have,” Hill says.
