TCPD unveils new jail, shooting range

Hundreds of residents turned out Monday to The Colony Police Department’s open house featuring its new jail, crime lab, property room, and shooting range, among other upgrades.

Police Chief Joe Clark addressed the attendees prior to the start of the tours. Clark theorized why so many people had turned out to see the new facilities.

“Either it’s morbid curiosity, duty or obligation, or you’re happy to see it from the outside looking in,” Clark joked.

On a serious note, Clark stressed that the new jail was built to state standards (even though it is not a requirement of municipal jails) because recent construction afforded them the opportunity to build the best facility they could now, rather than have to make improvements again down the road.

“We’re not going to always be a small city. We’ve grown significantly over the last 20 years, and we’re going to keep growing,” Clark said. “The intent of this facility is that it takes us through the next 50 years.”

Clark took the opportunity to recognize the people who helped see the $7.37 million project through from its inception to completion, including all members of the current city council, City Manager Troy Powell, former mayor John Dillard, former city council member John Marshall, former city manager Dale Cheatham, and former assistant city managers Tony Johnston and Greg Vick.

In particular, Clark recognized project manager Terry Gilman from the city’s Environmental Services Department, and Capt. Chris Plemmons and Capt. Chris Chandler for their roles in the project.

The facility tour featured the department’s new vehicle processing area, which allows for storage and examination of a vehicle involved in a crime, as well as a ventilated location to store drug plants seized during large-scale busts.

The department’s new crime lab contains high-tech storage facilities for hazardous materials but more importantly offers ample space for crime-scene technicians to process evidence. The lab also features a streamlined “bag and tag” area where officers can drop off evidence, and also a powerful exhaust system which ensures potential contaminants from the lab don’t spread to the rest of the building.

The new property room is significantly larger than the old one, and contains separate, locked closets for cash/jewelry, weapons, and drugs.

“The reasons we separate that from the main property is that’s the most-often stolen item(s). They’ll get audited quarterly, while the rest of the room is audited once a year,” Clark said.

The property room also has a large set of double doors which open onto the sallyport for the unloading of large items, such as eight-liner machines involved in illegal gambling.

A smaller fenced-off area of the property room, approximately the same size of the department’s old property area, contains items intended for long-term storage up to 75 years, Clark said.

“The reason is, there’s no statute of limitation on murders. We keep everything for murders and suicides. The (evidence) from suicides we keep so, if it turns in to a murder, we didn’t get rid of the evidence,” he said.

A highlight of the tour was the new shooting range. The room is encased in concrete and monitored electronically from a nearby control room. Having a shooting range on site allows TCPD officers to conveniently maintain their firearm qualifications, rather than having to travel outside the city to another range.

Clark said officers won’t know when they’ll be tested for firearm proficiency, but will be called in from duty on the street for the police equivalent of a “pop quiz.”

One of the unique features of the range is the lighting, Clark said. Colored lights are built into the ceiling to simulate the lights associated with police and EMS vehicles during nighttime stops.

The new jail looks like something out of a doing-hard-time documentary, with a central, computerized control area surrounded by a variety of cell types for both men and women, all of which are monitored with electronic surveillance. Some are larger, allowing for holding several detainees, while others are smaller and designed for prisoners requiring detoxification or suicide watch.

The outer doors of the jail leading to the rest of the facility are automatically locked at any time the jail cells themselves are open, ensuring that prisoners who might attempt to break free from jailers cannot escape from the jail area.

Bottom line, the new jail gives TCPD greater capabilities in dealing with not just a larger volume of prisoners but also the varied types that come through the facility.

“We’ve got some that know they’re going to prison, maybe for life, versus someone that’s here for a traffic ticket,” Clark said. “You don’t want to mix those people together. Someone who has nothing to lose, mixed in with your wife who forgot to pay a ticket, you don’t want those populations mixed together.”

There’s also the question of disease control. “We’ve frequently had people with tuberculosis, hepatitis, AIDS, all kinds of communicable disease,” Clark said. “We want to be able to have some level of control and that’s what this does for us.”

The tour ended at the new lobby of the jail, where visitors, such as family members or attorneys, can check in to see prisoners. There’s also an area set aside for a finger-printing service offered by the department to the city’s residents and businesses. Previously, finger-printing was conducted in the jail area, which was less than ideal, Clark said. Now the service can be conducted outside the “secure areas” of the facility.

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