By Sam Elliott

In order to catch up with the pace of a growing city, its government and police force, the City of Fishers has proposed a plan for a new headquarters for the Fishers Police Dept.

The proposed three-story, 78,000 building would be located directly east of the Fishers’ Police Dept. headquarters at 4 Municipal Dr. That building would be repurposed to house departments outgrowing Fishers City Hall.

The 4 Municipal Dr. building has been in use by FPD since 1994.

“We had a total of 33 officers,” Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness said of when the FPD headquarters was built. “In the 2017 budget, I’ve recommended we’ll have 111 police officers.”

The FPD’s crime lab, seized property storage, patrol division and internet crimes division have been outgrown, and police operations are across two different locations costing $36,000 annually in rent. Additionally, the 4 Municipal Dr. building lacks a space large enough to house department-wide training.

“When you add all that up together we’re not in an adequate facility,” Fadness said. “And we rent storage units. We’d like to consolidate under one roof so our police department can be prepared for the next 50 years of Fishers’ growth.”

The development would also add 28,800 square feet of new parking to the Nickel Plate District.

“Which is needed on a day-to-day basis for our staff and residents coming to visit,” Fadness said. “It would be great if we could have the police department move in by Jan. 1 of 2018. That would be ideal. I’ll be working to solidify the financing for it and solidifying the development team that will go forward and do this project.”

Fishers would then plan to relocate its IT department, city court, permitting and inspections and general administration roles from city hall into the former police headquarters.

“Aspects of what’s in city hall today will also move over to that building, alleviating the pressure on the current building we have at city hall and really will allow us to grow for some time to come,” Fadness said.