Plans to build a new municipal court and police department start with a training conference. Police Chief David Lindley and City Engineer Bill Webb will attend a conference March 18-21 in Knoxville, Tenn., regarding planning, designing and constructing police facilities. “We hope to be able to plan, fund and build a new municipal court and Police Department combined in the near future,” Lindley said.
Lindley and Webb agree the new building will give the municipal court and the police many advantages.
“The new (building) will be a separate complex,” Lindley said. “It will give desperately needed additional space and improve the ability to serve the public.”
“Right now the critical need is office space and parking space,” Webb said.
“It will give us nice modern facilities and free up more space in City Hall for more City Hall functions,” Webb said. “The mayor’s office could expand, and the city clerk’s office needs expansion.”
The conference aids by progressing talks of building to initiating the actual planning stage of this project.
“One step is to go to this school (training) and find needs,” Lindley said. “Then we approach the city government about approval.
“The school is designed to help the law enforcement engineer to plan efficient, cost effective building for the best investment,” Lindley said.
“The school is put on by the International Association of Chiefs of Police,” Lindley said. “They conduct training at a national level, some of the best available.”
These ideas are only the beginning of an extended development.
“We’re at the infancy stage of this particular project,” Lindley said.
Webb clarifies his position in this project as city engineer.
“What I would be is the go between,” Webb said. “I translate from police chief to designer and designer to police chief.
“Any technical stuff that might happen, I would take care of that,” Webb said.
In addition to a new location, Starkville Police Department will soon benefit from a new, higher-tech radio; the Zetron Base Radio and Console is more technologically superior than the radio.
“It is a more up to date base communication system,” Lindley said. “It has better radio capability.”
Lindley also said this new radio will serve as a replacement for the radios 911 took to their new headquarters.
“For the past few months, the county has its own stand-alone 911 headquarters across from the jail, and they took the radio with them,” Lindley said. “We’re merely replacing the radio.”
The Zetron Base Radio and Console is not at all unfamiliar to Starkville’s police officers.
“We had a similar system but older: 10 years,” Lindley said.
Lindley said he believes that the new radio will prove to be much more effective than the older model.
“They will help with reliability and the quality of equipment,” Lindley said. “We had trouble finding parts to repair the older radio.”
The Zetron Base Radio and Console will also benefit the Starkville community because its reliability and technological superiority makes the job of Lindley and the Police Department easier.
“This is a more reliable base communication system,” Lindley said. “We can better serve the public.”
The new radio will cost $8,743, and is not a concern for Starkville police.
“Funding is from the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant,” Lindley said. “It is a recent law enforcement grant to purchase new equipment.”
The Board of Aldermen and Mayor Mack Rutledge voted to approve this request Feb. 19 during their regularly scheduled meeting.