Depression-era building creates major concerns for Beverly PD

BEVERLY, Mass. — Overcrowded and outdated, that’s the main description for the decades-old Beverly Police Station.

When the station was built in 1939, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president, the country was still in the Great Depression, and WWII was just beginning.

"These are the old gas lamp things, this is how they used to light the building,” Beverly Police Chief John LeLacheur told FOX25.

Mayor Michael Cahill says a new station is a top priority in town, and LeLacheur said he believes it, but the plans have been on-going since the 90s.

"It just becomes very difficult sometimes to conduct day to day operations,” he said.

During a tour of the building, filing cabinets were stashed in every corner, holding cells were being used for storage, and fans are located throughout because there is no central air.

Individually none of these issues are pressing, but taken as a whole they are a large from that LeLacheur said hurts department morale.

"They don't believe there's every going to be a new police station and I think that we are trying to get the word out - we are in a process and it's going to happen,” he said.

There are safety and health problems too that are much more pressing. The cracked floor tiles contain asbestos and the booking area has limited security.

“No security for the officers when they're booking prisoners,” LeLacheur said. “They're sitting them here and booking and doing fingerprinting here."

Cahill told FOX25 before construction of a new police station can begin, the debt for new schools has to come off the books.

Cox Media Group