After nearly 40 years of service, the Everett Police Station is tired and falling apart.
What was modern 40 years ago is outdated for policing purposes today.
This has been proven by the failure of the air conditioning system during July, which has led to working conditions inside the station declining precipitously.
In the modern world, you can’t have a police station serving 50,000 residents as well as being the workplace for several hundred police officers and civilian employees without air conditioning and other amenities that fall in line with the government’s OSHA standards.
The mayor has declared an emergency. That’s great, but it doesn’t change the situation, which is likened by police personnel working inside the building to a band aid.
The police station either needs to be totally rehabbed and reconfigured in order to meet the demands of modern day policing, or it needs to be ripped down and replaced with a modern structure more representative of the city that is rising around it.
The police union is right to complain about the health and welfare standards of its officers working inside a building without air conditioning in July and August.
There are other problems with the facility – falling ceilings, outdated cells, clogged toilets, steel doors without proper returns and on and on.
The city must do more than call an emergency.
It is must act quickly and decisively for the benefit of our first responders.
At the very least, they deserve a police headquarters they can be proud of.