BENTONVILLE -- A new headquarters for Northwest Arkansas Community College's Department of Public Safety will provide officers more space in a location that's closer to the center of campus.
Officials plan to move the department's main office this summer from Burns Hall to the northwest corner of the Center for Health Professions' first floor.
NWACC police force
Northwest Arkansas Community College’s Department of Public Safety includes 12 full-time officers and three part-time certified police officers, as well as several full-time and part-time security officers, Chief Steve Tosh said. They are deployed not only across the main campus, but satellite campuses in Benton and Washington counties as well.
Source: Staff report
Renovation of that area to prepare it for the Department of Public Safety is expected to cost $25,000, according to a college document. The Board of Trustees will be asked to approve that expenditure at its next meeting on Monday.
The money would come from a fund consisting of millage dollars set aside for capital expenses.
Burns Hall, which opened in 1995 as the college's first permanent facility, is the farthest south of the eight buildings on campus. The Department of Public Safety's office is located just inside the building's main entrance.
The Center for Health Professions is "about as geographically centralized as you can get" on campus, said Ethan Beckcom, the college's director of institutional policy, risk management and compliance. Beckcom oversees the Department of Public Safety.
The department will retain about three-quarters of the space it has in Burns Hall. A small space it has now in the Center for Health Professions will be expanded by nearly 2,000 square feet, providing the department a net gain of about four times the space it has in the two buildings combined, according to Debi Buckley, vice president of finance and administration.
"Though this represents a significant space gain, it will allow our officers to perform jobs that were done in other spaces, like the parking garage, in a secured space," Buckley wrote in an email.
The new headquarters will have a conference room, a training room and an area where officers can write their reports. There will be a bank of monitors linked to security cameras across campus, said Steve Tosh, chief of police and director of public safety.
Officers also will have easier access from the new location to the two Shewmaker buildings on the north side of campus.
"I'm excited about it," Tosh said. "I've been here for 10 years, and when I came here we had a very small department. We've grown with time, and we're just now trying to get more space."
Tosh promised officers will maintain a presence in Burns Hall.
"There will always be somebody there," he said.
The main campus is staffed with police or security officers around the clock throughout the year.
"Our main objective is to serve and protect these students, faculty and staff, to let them know they're in a safe learning environment," Tosh said. "We do that with our presence and just being friendly and helpful."
Beckcom said the college hopes to acquire a grant that will pay for a firearms simulator, which the new space will be able to accommodate. The simulator walks officers through various scenarios, testing them on the appropriate level of response, Beckcom said.
The simulator would be something new not just for the college, but the entire region, and other local police departments would be invited to use it too, Beckcom said.
The Center for Health Professions is an 83,000-square-foot, three-story building. The $14.2 million facility opened in 2013.
The building's third floor had been left unfinished until last year. The college spent about $1.7 million on construction and architect fees to build out the third floor, which is 25,967 square feet, according to Steven Hinds, executive director of public relations and marketing.
The third floor now has several offices and classrooms and two study areas for students. It also has a meeting space called the Oak Room, which can seat up to 150 people. It also can be sectioned into three separate rooms, Hinds said.
NW News on 06/11/2016