Saturday, September 12, 2009

American Police State Update

El Cajon is a bedroom community for the city of San Diego. It is pretty much a nothing of a town and I should know because I live there. Their police headquarters are in a 40 year-old building which makes it "way old" in surfer jargon. For comparison, the Castleford Police Station has been in continuous operation since 1898.

Because their building is older than many of their officers the El Cajon Police Department has been lobbying for a new, bigger facility for the past 20 years. They are finally getting it.

The brand spanking new El Cajon Police Headquarters is going to be a cozy 119,000 square-foot facility on 5.7 acres. It is going to be bigger, fancier, and better landscaped than any any hotel in the town.

About that bigger part. El Cajon only has 119 sworn officers which means there will be 1000 square feet of office space for every single officer in the force. At $65 million (Any bets the final cost will be twice that?), it will cost more than a half-million dollars per policeman. It would be cheaper to build a brand new home for every officer on the force.

They are not wasting a lot of space on criminals, there will only be 12 holding cells. For comparison, Mayberry had two. This is not a place to coddle prisoners. Oh, no. Almost all of the space will be dedicated to the comfort of the working police officers. Why it is going to be so plush they will never want to leave to actually, you know, patrol.

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