ANAHEIM : New-Look Police Station to Be Opened

Workers on Thursday were putting te finishing touches on the newly remodeled Police Department headquarters, which will be formally opened this weekend.

On Saturday, officials will officially dedicate the $22-million addition and expansion to the facility and rename the headquarters building the Mark A. Stephenson Police Station, after the former chief who spent 42 years with the department.

During a media tour Thursday, police officials showed off the building’s new communications center, administrative office additions and the department’s new jail, which can hold up to 140 detainees, 40 more than the current facility.

On its busiest weekends, the jail has been filled by as many as 85 detainees, Capt. Randy Gaston said. The new facility, he said, will save time for officers because they will not be forced as often to take prisoners to County Jail in Santa Ana.

“It’s been beneficial for Anaheim as well (as the county) that Anaheim has its own facility,” Gaston said. “We arrest 15,000 people a year, that’s a lot of commuting time.”

He said the city will contract out jail space to the state parole department.

In all, 120,000 square feet were added to the building, which was last remodeled in 1969. There are 51,000 square feet of new office space, including new quarters for detective units on the second floor, and 44,000 square feet of remodeled office area.

The communications facility, which receives up to 500 calls a day on the 911 line, has been improved into a new, seismically safe structure.