Idaho State Police break ground on new building in Pocatello
State legislators and Idaho State Police officials grabbed their shovels to break ground on a new state police building in Pocatello.
ISP said this building is necessary.
Currently, ISP is spread among three different buildings across Pocatello. Officers said this can sometimes make communication between the divisions difficult. They said it’s also confusing for the public because they don’t know which building to go to when they need assistance.
The new building will be a little more than 23,000 square feet. It will combine forensics, patrol, investigations and the training divisions all in one place.
Lt. Col. Kedrick Wills of ISP said that having all those divisions in one place will enhance their quality of service and cooperation.
“It’ll enhance communication, certainly, and that’s one of the biggest benefits that we see is enhanced communication,” Wills said. “It also will avoid the duplication of services that you sometimes can see when you’re going across divisions within an agency.”
ISP is also looking forward to the new additions in the building, including the on-site POST training facility.
“One of the things I’m really excited about is we’ll have a training room,” said ISP Capt. Eric Dayley. “It’ll fit about 50 or 60 people and we haven’t had that. We’ve always had to borrow a room from someone else and now we’ll have our own room.”
District 29 state Rep., Mark Nye, said state legislators were supportive of the new building because it was necessary and beneficial. Nye said that one of the best things about the building will be the on-site forensics room.
“Rather than sending forensic evidence to Boise and the delay there, we can do it right here, right now to help convict the guilty and get reports in,” Nye said. “And help to free the innocent much, much faster.”
Wills said this building has been a long time coming and he’s excited to see the improvements ISP can make with a new and improved building.
The state senator for District 28, Jim Guthrie, said he is very supportive of the building and he’s glad the state could finally make it happen for ISP.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of state police at a lot of different levels and I just appreciate their professionalism and their respect they have for the process,” Guthrie said.
Guthrie said they weren’t pushy or aggressive with the process. He said they were patient and understood the process takes time.
The new building will cost about $6 million and it was completely funded by the state.
Dayley said construction could begin any time.
