Lake in the Hills police officers have a new workspace.
The new police station at 2600 Village Hall Drive, opened Feb. 5 following construction that began in 2024. The department provided tours to members of the media Wednesday.
The previous station, located at 1115 Crystal Lake Road, was about half the size of the new facility.
Police Chief Matt Mannino said village officials are still figuring out what to do with the old space, but it will ultimately be up to the Village Board to decide.
[ See more photos inside the new Lake in the Hills police station ]
The department had long outgrown its old station. Officers didn’t have enough space for all their gear in their lockers, and no secure parking meant things like vandalism. The old jail lobby was small, so a mother trying to find her lost child could be sharing a space with someone trying to turn themselves in, Sgt. Chad Riffe said
Squad cars are now parked in a garage, which Riffe said can expedite calls during shift changes when, for instance, there are six inches of snow on the ground. The garage can also be used for trainings; a traffic stop training was held there recently.
Now, village officials said, the new facility has more space for safer processing and larger holding areas. There are four holding cells – two for men, two for women – but ideally, Riffe said, one person will be in a cell at a time.
The new station has numerous amenities the old one didn’t, including wellness and fitness rooms for officers. A fitness room was one of the biggest requests from personnel, Mannino said. There is also an incident command vehicle room that can serve as a storm shelter. Mannino said it is meant to withstand an EF-5 tornado.
Numerous security features are included in the building, such as an emergency button close to the floor in a jail that an officer can hit if they are struggling on the ground. The button would put out an alarm in the jail and alert dispatchers and officers. The old jail had a similar button but it was higher up on the wall. Riffe said it was a “nice technology to have.”
The station’s budget was $27 million and “we’re on track” to stay in the budget, Mannino said.