New Sheriff Station to Ease Space Crunch

Shortly after Ventura County built a sheriff’s station in 1969 to serve the growing communities of Thousand Oaks and Moorpark, the station’s crowding problem began. Employees had to double-park their cars in the lot; desks were pushed together, and officers shared lockers.

The East Valley sheriff’s station, designed to accommodate 75 workers, now holds about 156. Three mobile homes house the traffic bureau, the special investigations unit and a staff meeting room.

Will Open in 1988

But construction of a new, $11-million station outside the eastern edge of Thousand Oaks will begin next year, and the facility is scheduled to open in June, 1988.

The 57,000-square-foot station--almost five times larger than the existing one--will be built to hold 242 employees, 36 temporary prisoners and 12 prison trusties, said Cmdr. Oscar Fuller, the top Sheriff’s Department official at East Valley. Trusties are inmates convicted of misdemeanor crimes but not considered dangerous.

The 20-acre site is on Olsen Road, about a mile west of the present station. The new station, like its predecessor, will serve Thousand Oaks and Moorpark--cities that contract with the county for police protection--and unincorporated areas of eastern Ventura County. Simi Valley has its own police force.

Fuller said his staff is looking forward to “the morale boost . . . and the state-of-the-art technology.” He added, “We’ve simply run out of room to expand services.”

He said the old 12,500-square-foot station probably will become a center for county welfare or social services.

The new facility’s financing was settled last year through an agreement between Ventura County and Thousand Oaks under which the city will pay about $7 million of the cost.

“A growing city needs better facilities,” said Grant Brimhall, Thousand Oaks city manager. “It’s totally inadequate today.”

The Sheriff’s Department eventually plans to serve Moorpark with a storefront police office also, where crime reports can be taken, although squad cars will be serviced at the new facility near Thousand Oaks, Fuller said.

Room for Computers

He said the new station will allow its detectives and administrative staff to have personal computers. At present, he said, “We have literally maxed out on any additional electrical appliances.”

Trusties will do the lawn work, wash police cars and prepare food for temporary inmates, he said. A dormitory-like room will hold inmates who volunteer to serve their time at the station.

The building was designed to handle an expanding staff through the year 1995 because walls can be knocked down to add room.

A large conference room will be used as an emergency coordination center during disasters and, by reservation, for meetings of local groups.

The custody area will include a rubberized cell without furniture for those arrested who are deemed likely to hurt themselves, and standard cells designed to hold only one prisoner, instead of three cells with six beds each, as in the existing station.

Detectives’ interview rooms are designed to accommodate both victims and those arrested. There will be one high-security room with the furniture fixed to the floor; three standard interview rooms, and two “soft” interview rooms for crime victims. The last will have comfortable furnishings and windows to the outside.

“Hopefully, it will minimize some of the trauma that victims suffer,” Fuller said.