Public Safety Facility
Golden Valley’s Public Safety building houses the Police and Fire Department. Together, these departments safeguard the well-being and security of the public.
When Public Works operations are moved to the new facility, the City will build a new Public Safety building that will serve as the fire and police headquarters in downtown Golden Valley.
About the Public Safety Building
The current Public Safety building does not provide adequate space for modern police and fire department operations.
Here’s how the Public Safety building doesn’t support the delivery of services to the community:
lack of proper storage for police equipment, vehicles, and files (some must often be stored off site due to space constraints, forcing staff to visit other buildings to use these items);
inadequate training space, including a lack of a dedicated space for police officers to learn and practice physical training techniques and for firefighters to train with equipment (most firefighter training occurs on concrete and outdoors — even during winter);
lack of equitable and inclusive locker rooms for police and fire staff
lack of public meeting rooms (police interviewees must be brought into the secured office space, which violates best practices for keeping the public and staff safe) ;
inadequate office space (two or more staff members often share space intended for one);
inadequate room for firefighters to quickly and safely change into tactical gear when they respond to an emergency call;
no dedicated workspace for safely cleaning firefighting equipment and gear, which exposes firefighters to carcinogens and endangers their health;
no sleeping and eating quarters to support a 24-hour duty crew staffing model for the Fire Department;
outdated ventilation systems, which contribute to poor air quality.
Building a new Public Safety building is critical to continue supporting the needs of the Police and Fire Departments. New facilities will increase service response capacities and make way for future needs to be met.
To better support firefighters and police officers, the new Public Safety facility will provide:
dedicated training space for both the Fire and Police Departments so personnel in each department receive the best instruction possible in their roles;
equitable and inclusive restrooms and locker room amenities;
adequate space for safe storage of equipment, vehicles, and files;
appropriate spaces to clean carcinogens off firefighting gear to mitigate firefighters’ exposure to carcinogens;
space to support a 24-hour firefighter duty crew, including adequate sleeping quarters, a kitchen, and other amenities, positioning the City to better retain and attract firefighters.
The duty crew staffing model creates part-time jobs with predictable scheduled shifts, which helps with firefighter recruitment and retention.
