LITH police say they need a new $22M HQ that’s twice as big: ‘This here is obviously not ideal’

Unsafe, inconvenient and no longer enough space.

These are some of the ways Lake in the Hills police are describing the department’s current digs, leading to plans being created for a new $22 million building.

The Lake in the Hills Police Department is struggling to carry out basic practices within its current facility, Deputy Chief of Support Services Matthew Mannino said. Several rooms are too small for specific tasks, and the building is disjointed with various staff members separated from one another.

“This here is obviously not ideal,” Mannino said, referring to the department’s current headquarters.

Located in the middle of a residential neighborhood at 1115 Crystal Lake Road, the department has been in the building since 1992, originally sharing the space with the village of Lake in the Hills. However, after the village moved out in 2002, it opened the space up for the department. That space only got so far, however.

In total, the current facility, which is split between one department building and two annex buildings, totals 17,642 square-feet. A space-needs study, conducted by FGM Architects, found the department needs about twice that space, somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000 square-feet, village documents show.

Those problems with the current facility are both in and out of the building. They start with the parking lot, which is a sloped space that officials said isn’t enough to accommodate needs and leads to a confusing entrance.

Once inside on the lower level, the jail lobby is small, which Mannino said is a concern since there could be two people who are in a heated exchange having to wait together in a tight space.

The inmate intake room is small and only allows for one officer and inmate at a time, Mannino said. This is an inconvenience, particularly during times of the week when there are more arrests. The risk of an inmate getting violent also makes it a safety hazard, he said.

“It’s small. … and there’s sharp corners and hard surfaces,” he said.

The sally port, which is a small garage used to transfer inmates from the police vehicle to the jail, also shares space with an evidence desk, Mannino said. The evidence is packaged there, logged in another room, then stored in a different one.

“This ideally would be done in one spot,” Mannino said.

The locker rooms also are no longer adequate, he said. Not only is the space too tight for officers to be in, but the lockers don’t provide enough room for equipment the police department has received over the years.

In response, the department has converted one of its conference rooms into another set of lockers. However, that room, while providing more space, is still a tight squeeze.

The location of the space is a problem, too, village documents show. Being in the middle of a residential area makes it harder to navigate in an emergency.

To remedy the various problems, the department has been seeking to build a new facility that will be twice the size of the current one. This new space, while still in the early stages, would be built next door to Village Hall at 600 Harvest Gate.

Despite the expected cost, about $14.1 million of the projected $22 million bill will be paid by taking on new debt and spread over the next couple of decades, village documents state. This, along with transfers from the village’s coffers, means it won’t increase taxes or lead to any new taxes for residents, Finance Director Peter Stefan said.

To help cover that cost, the village is expecting to save about $1 million annually thanks to lower costs to the police pension fund and the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, Stefan said.

The remainder of that, about $8 million, will come from a police facility fund, which will be filled using the village’s general funds. That total already has been put into the fund after trustees approved the transfer at its Aug. 11 meeting, Stefan said.

This transfer of $7.9 million brought the fund’s total to about $8.2 million, which includes another $300,000 that was transferred in July, Stefan said.

Construction on a new facility may not begin until 2025, village documents show. In the meantime, the facility’s cost and features are being ironed out.