Officers solve overcrowding puzzle - at Krispy Kreme: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

As if they didn't spend all their time there anyways...

Ex-doughnut shop answers sticky question

By Erika Pesantes
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted September 30 2006

Boynton Beach· Mayor Jerry Taylor admits the place he's found to house police officers, who work out of the congested police headquarters, will elicit chuckles.

But good-humored police are ready to brace themselves for the batch of jokes. In fact, bring them on, they say.

Taylor says the former Krispy Kreme Doughnut shop on Boynton Beach Boulevard just west of Interstate 95 could be perfect for a police substation. He will propose leasing space that would relieve the cramped police station during Tuesday's commission meeting.

"There's really no room to turn around. People work in the type of environment you put them in," Taylor said of the current 18,354-square-foot location. "It's not conducive to good performance if you cram people like sardines."

The Krispy Kreme site is spacious and has plenty of parking, he said. The doughnut shop, which opened in August 2003, flopped and now remains vacant and up for lease.

At the police station attached to City Hall, fingerprinting must be done in hallways that are crowded with filing cabinets and other office supplies.

Recently, a team of 18 traffic unit officers worked out of a 400-square-foot room with moldy carpets. They moved out, but 12 officers and sergeants from the Community Action Team are due to move in.

They currently work in a 150-square-foot space.

"It's not pleasant to come to work and walk through a maze to get to your office," Maj. Frank Briganti said. "At this point, we're so cramped that anything would be welcomed.

"After a few months, the doughnut jokes will wear off and we'll be happy to occupy the Krispy Kreme place."

A 2003 study found the Police Department desperately needed an additional 53,000 square feet of space to work comfortably -- nearly three times the size of the current headquarters.

Sgt. Philip Hawkins said occupying the site of the former Fire Station 2 would be ideal for police. It just needs to be revamped, he said, adding it has generators and large bay doors.

"It's got everything," he said.

Over the past five months, police officers have been shifting around the tight quarters and even overflowed into a classroom at its range at Miner Road and Gateway Boulevard.

About 200 police officers and clerical employees squeeze into the police headquarters and the 6,981-square-foot range.

And more employees are soon expected -- five additional police staffers have been budgeted for.

Taylor said leasing space to alleviate the department would be an interim solution until construction of the 65,000-square-foot police facility at the site of the proposed Emergency Operations Center at Gateway Boulevard and High Ridge Road begins in late 2009.

For now, police anxiously await relief, despite the jokes that may roll in.

"It's a bad stigma we're trying to kick," said Sgt. John Bonafair. "But we're willing to work with whatever they give us. If we get the space, we'll take the jokes."