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Regina’s cop shop has finished Phase 1 of construction and is set to open to the public.
The new facility is located at 1717 Saskatchewan Dr., across Osler Street from the previous headquarters location.
More open spaces with huge windows, public meeting rooms and modernized identification areas are just some of the new editions.
Regina Police Service Chief Evan Bray said the new building has lots to proud about, especially the use of shared public spaces and private ones.
The front desk at the new Regina Police Service headquarters. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)
“If you were in our old police headquarters — particularly the front desk area — you know we were particularly limited with options,” Bray said.
Bray says the new building’s front desk area had makeshift private rooms that were made to keep up with the high volume of people coming through. Those were all temporary until the new facility was built.
“That’s just one example how this new facility provides us with what I call a contemporary space for modern day policing issues, challenges, respecting privacy, respecting anonymity if that’s needed but also allowing our officers to interact in a good way with the citizens of our city,” Brays aid.
The new building has also incorporated a cultural centre which can conduct smudging ceremonies.
Whereas police leased the old headquarters building for $2 million a year, the Regina Police Service owns the new building. The building itself is not new — it’s the former STC bus terminal — but it has been refinished. The cost of the project is $50.4 million.
Bray said the RPS saved money by making a home out of the former STC building. He pointed to the Saskatoon police headquarters, which was built from the ground up and which cost double what renovations cost now. That building opened about 10 years ago.
The second and third phase of the renovations in Regina are expected to finish in the fall and in 2025. Phase 2 will have a shared component with the police service that will have a gym space, offices and a community kitchen. Phase 3 will see renovations at the original headquarters building.
— With files from 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick
