New police headquarters taking shape in Freehold Department will make its home in redeveloped Karagheusian rug mill

New police headquarters
taking shape in Freehold
Department will make
its home in redeveloped
Karagheusian rug mill

JERRY WOLKOWITZ Freehold Borough Patrolman Maurice Parrish toured the police department’s new headquarters in the redeveloped rug mill, Jackson Street, this week and checked out one of the prisoner holding cells that has already been installed. The department may move out of its present headquarters at Bennett and Hudson streets next spring.

FREEHOLD — Borough police will have a new home by March if construction on the department’s new headquarters continues without any glitches.

Work continues on the 15,000-square-foot area on the first floor of the redeveloped A&M Karagheusian rug mill, Center and Jackson streets.

Plans call for the police department to leave its present home in the former Bennett Street School, at Hudson and Bennett streets, and move into the rebuilt rug mill towers next spring.

Amid the Sheetrock, dust and construction ruble, ladders and tools, one can actually visualize, with a little imagination, the finished police facility as it takes shape and form.

The new headquarters will be a great deal larger than the current police facility with all main offices and departments, as well as the municipal court operation, on the first floor of the borough’s landmark rug mill.

Construction workers, electricians, plumbers and other skilled craftsmen are working in earnest, hoping to complete the facility by March, according to Freehold Borough Police Capt. Michael Diaiso.

The project was planned at the start of the redevelopment of the rug mill three or four years ago, according to the captain.

"This project was earmarked from the beginning," Diaiso explained. "When the developer came in, it was decided that we’d take a piece of the structure for our department."

The captain said work on the new police offices is coming along quickly. The walls are up and offices are taking shape. The building will have an entry foyer with the police department to the left and the courtroom on the right. A records and dispatch window will be directly in front of people as they enter the building.

This area is the end of the public access section. Everything other than access to the court clerk and rest rooms is "entry controlled" and open only to authorized personnel, Diaiso explained.

Interview rooms are already constructed and access to these rooms will be entry controlled as well and an escort by a police officer will be required to move into these rooms.

There are spaces created for the investigation, traffic and safety and community policing divisions. A room has been provided for the members of the bicycle patrol unit to operate from and to store their equipment. A squad and training room is also planned.

Offices for Police Chief Michael Beierschmitt, Diaiso and other officers and administrative support staff are also already in place.

"Our dispatch area will be more modern in this building. We’ll have state-of-the-art communications and up-to-date current video monitoring both within the building and outside as well," Diaiso explained.

Three holding cells for suspects have already arrived and are in place. There will be no public access to these holding cells, according to the captain. A separate access garage has been constructed to bring prisoners into the facility.

"The police car will be driven into a small garage. Once the garage door comes down, the prisoner is then contained. There is no way he or she can exit the building," Diaiso said.

The captain explained that the entry and exit to the access garage will be electronically controlled by a dispatcher. The police officer taking a prisoner in or out of the building will not have control of the garage door.

An evidence room, a storage room and a police firearms storage room are in the process of being constructed. A workout room will be an addition police officers do not have at their current facility. The second level of the facility now waits for the delivery of weight and cardiovascular equipment that will help officers keep in shape, according to Diaiso.