PUYALLUP, Wash. — The Puyallup Police Department has resorted to converting bathrooms and storage closets into makeshift offices for staff because there simply isn't enough space in their station.
As a result, the city of Puyallup is now asking voters to approve Proposition 1, to build a new police station and jail on South Hill. Still, some property owners are questioning whether the jail portion is needed.
With the Nov. 7 General Election now just days away, KING 5 took a tour inside the current Puyallup Police Station, built 55 years ago.
As we came to find, a storage closet clad with cinderblock walls was being converted into an office, according to Captain Ryan Portmann, who serves as a Corrections Division spokesperson for the Puyallup Police Department. But it doesn't end there.
"This used to be a restroom," he added, pointing to what is now an office for their police cadets. "We don't have the office space, the locker space, the parking space, all the things that that we need for the size that we are today.”
When the now old and rundown police station was first built in the 1960s, there were 14,000 people living in Puyallup and only 23 police staff. Since then, the population and police staff have more than tripled.
"Close to 100 employees and 43,000 people in the city of Puyallup," said Portmann.
The current police station and jail are located in downtown Puyallup. If Proposition 1 gets approved this November, they would build a new facility-- housing both a station and jail-- on a 3.5-acre lot of city-owned land on South Hill.
The total cost of the project is $76 million, and $20 million of it would be paid for through bonds issued to the city. Voters, however, would have to approve up to $56 million in bonds.
Prop 1, if approved, would cost property owners a tax of about $185 dollars a year, based on a home price of half a million dollars. The project would be financed over a maximum of 30 years.
Opponents feel that it costs too much.
"A complete boondoggle, waste of taxpayer payer dollars," said Chris Chisholm, a local property owner who runs a political action committee called Puyallup Voters For Integrity.
The current jail has 50 beds, but a new one would have six additional beds.
"Beds to put the folks who are going through crisis, either mental crisis or substance use disorder," said Portmann.
Those against Prop 1 have said the city should instead lease beds from Pierce County Jail.
"We don’t know why, we think that perhaps there's turf issues between the Puyallup Police Department and the Pierce County Corrections," said Chisholm.
There are nearly 2,000 beds in the county jail, but staffing issues have limited the utilization of them significantly. Chisholm said he believes city leaders should refocus their energy on pressuring the county jail to hire and retain more staff.
"Put pressure, political pressure on our county in order to increase the staff there," said Chisholm.
Portmann said the studies conducted by Puyallup leadership on the proposed project reveal that it would cost them 25% more in taxpayer money to house those inmates elsewhere.
"Having our own jails? That eliminates the need to transport officers to other facilities, we control our costs because we're not contracting with those facilities," said Portmann.
Chisholm, who is also a business owner, said the issue for him is not the police station; rather, it’s the jail.
"Support a new police station for sure," Chisholm said. "But, just, the jail idea's complete albatross.”