New police station serving rural Hamilton and suburbs 'on the horizon'

Hamilton police are planning to create a new division aimed at serving the city's rural areas and growing suburbs.

The project, which will include a new station somewhere in the suburbs, is still years away but is now officially part of police plans.

In a report tabled, Thursday, Chief Eric Girt listed a new division four station — serving Flamborough, Dundas, Ancaster and area — as a target for 2025. The estimated price is $25 million.

Girt, presented the project as part of list of capital projects at the police services board meeting, said there's still no location, or design, or even an idea of what would need to go in the station.

But a new station is needed, he said. Populations are growing in suburban areas like Binbrook, Elfrida and Waterdown, and the current division three covers the largest geographic area in the city. 

"I don't know where (the new station) will end up," he said. "It's a 10-year projection. The idea was 'let's put it as a place marker.' It's on the horizon."

Currently, HPS has three divisions. Division one is located at the central police station on King William in downtown Hamilton. Division two is at 2825 King St. E. in Stoney Creek. Division three is at 400 Rymal Rd. E.

Division three serves Hamilton Mountain, Flamborough, Dundas, Ancaster, Binbrook and Glanbrook. That means an officer leaving from Rymal Road East can take more than half an hour to get to north Flamborough.

Police only broke ground this year on an investigative services building downtown. They expect to move into it in fall 2019. That's the priority right now, Girt said. And HPS needs to pace itself on big-ticket items.

Coun. Judi Partridge, Ward 15 councillor, said she's been talking to police for a couple of years about a future division.

Police dispatch officers from an office in Innovation Park near Waterdown, she said. But big-name crimes, such as the killing of Angelo Musitano in Waterdown, always drum up talk in the community of the need for a closer station. 

$6M to replace radios

As for where the station goes, Partridge isn't lobbying for anything yet.

"It has to make sense to serve the whole area," she said. 

The new station is in the HPS's business plan. It was initially cited as a 2020 possibility, but the investigative services building took priority.

Here are some other items on the capital project list:

• Replacing portable radio equipment: $6 million (2020-2023).
• New conductive energy weapons (Tasers): $335,700 (2019). Right now, police use X26 models. Those are being discontinued, the report says, and police need the X2 model now.
• Roof replacements at the three stations: $1,350,000 (2019-2022).
• A new mobile command centre: $750,000.