Photos: Peek at the new Peru police station as it nears completion

After first breaking ground in April of 2020, the new $16.4 million Peru Public Safety Complex is approaching completion.

If everything continues according to schedule, the Peru Police Department could move in sometime between July 1 and July 15 of this year.

The project was substantially completed in about 11 months as contractors continue to tie up loose ends in the nearly 30,000 square foot facility.

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Peru Police Chief Doug Bernabei, gestures to the new community room inside the Peru Police Station. "The room is already scheduled for bookings." A full kitchen connects to the community room. The room can also be used in emergency situations. (Scott Anderson)

Peru Director of Engineering and Planning Eric Carls credited the planning process that went into the building and the people and organizations the city collaborated with for how smooth the construction has gone.

Principal of BCA Architects Matthew Lamps, MWL Architects, Leopardo Construction and many others were integral parts in the construction of the building they believe can last 100 years.

“We had a great team and of course we had our civic guys that did some of the site work that we’re really happy with,” Carls said. “The core team with (Lamps’ group), MWL and Leopardo the project was seamless.”

Police Chief Doug Bernabei and the planning team was adamant to include representatives from each division within the department from patrol to bookkeeping to administrations to make sure the facility can best suit the needs of those who will work there on a daily basis.

“To properly design a facility like this you need to have input from everybody,” Lamps said. “Your day-to-day people, your admins you need to have that from everybody. That makes a project like this extremely successful.”

While the location at 2650 N. Peoria St. will be the new home of the Peru Police Department, many aspects of the building were constructed with the community in mind.

The facility is divided up into three sections being community space, detention center and administrations and record keeping.

Walking in the front door, visitors will be treated to a lobby with a public restroom and waiting area.

Off of the lobby is the facility’s community room that the city and the police hope this room will be used for various different groups and events throughout the city, much like the community room located in City Hall.

“We are estimating that this room will be booked by members of the community 300 to 400 times a year,” Bernabei said. “We’ve already started getting calls ‘When can we book it?’ ”

The community room is equipped with the latest technology and an abundance of outlets to fit any need. This space can easily be rearranged to suit the group or individuals taking advantage of the provided space.

Attached to the community room is a kitchenette to allow users to bring in or prepare food in the space provided.

This room also will be the home for the mobile training unit for the state of Illinois for a six-county region, according to Bernabei. The room has already received bookings for the training in September and in October and November the room will be used for in-service training by Northwestern University.

The room is wired for an emergency operations center in the case of a major natural or manmade disaster.

Separated by keycard locked doors from the communal spaces is the more typical police station area. This large space includes work stations placed throughout including designated spaces for detectives, patrol and leadership positions.

The newly designed ‘go’ rooms will feature a mailbox for the officers as well as an informational screen alerting them to any need-to-know information as they enter the building.

The work spaces are equipped with cloud-based setups and teaming counters to help the officers transition and collaborate with other divisions and officers.

Located near these workstations are a variety of meeting and debriefing rooms that will be used for search warrant planning and serve many other uses for the police.

The building is equipped with men’s and women’s locker rooms, a designated fitness center, a break room and a First Aid room. The fitness center will also be used for annual taser and hand-to-hand combat training for the officers.

The location will contain room for the storage and charging of radars, radios and anything else the officers use daily in order to perform their job. The complex also has designated space for proper gun cleaning and storage.

Attached to the police station portion is a secure garage for officers to store their squad cars along with other police vehicles, such as ATVs and trailers for specific types of calls. The garage is equipped with a washing bay to maintain the cleanliness of the vehicles.

The facility is equipped with an evidence intake room where officers can deposit collected evidence in a system that is safe and effective for future use.

These one-way evidence lockers ensure that once evidence is entered, it will be cared for and secure. The garage contains a way to lock apprehended vehicles that were taken into evidence.

Attached to the evidence intake room is an evidence lab that will allow for future expansion into processing evidence taken by the police department.

The police station was designed to be as multifunctional as possible while taking into account the future growth of the Peru Police Department and its needs moving forward.

The last portion of the complex is the detention center where police can hold individuals safely with modern technology and methods.

The detention center includes two cells and one group holding room that is sound and sight controlled by the officers.

The center will have the necessary equipment for taking mugshots and processing those who come through as well as interview rooms that can be accessed by the officers on-duty.

Bringing the building full circle will be the bookkeeping section.

This building was constructed with the qualifications of a nationally-accredited police station. Bernabei said it was and is a goal he has for his department.

“One of the goals that I’ve always had was to someday become a nationally accredited police department,” Bernabei. “I think there’s 480 standards you have to meet from policies to best practices. It’s extremely difficult to become accredited.”

Bernabei mentioned he believes the department meets the standards but the old facility would disqualify it from being accredited. He hopes this new facility will help the department move further toward this goal.