The new Fayetteville Police Department headquarters building is seen Monday, May 1, 2023. (Flyer photo/Todd Gill)Fayetteville’s new, $37 million police station is up and running on Stephen Carr Memorial Boulevard.
The 82,630-square-foot facility opened Monday morning, four years after voters approved a bond issue in a special election that included funding for the new campus, which sits on 11.6 acres at the corner of what was formerly Porter Road and Deane Street.
The road’s name was changed in 2021 in honor of Officer Stephen Carr, who was shot and killed two years earlier while sitting in his patrol vehicle behind the department’s former headquarters on Rock Street in downtown Fayetteville. The new facility includes a gated area for patrol vehicles in an effort to keep officers safe during shift changes.
The campus also includes an indoor firing range and support buildings, plus a 7,322-square-foot fire station.
The project will also address space issues that department heads have stressed for years. The former headquarters was a renovated J.C. Penney automotive facility that some said was too small when the department moved there in 1993.
Former Police Chief Greg Tabor spoke on numerous occasions about the building’s cramped facilities, including how officers dealt with parking issues, storage limitations that required evidence to be taken to a separate building across town, and how officers had to change clothes in the hallways because there was no space for a proper locker room.
The department’s officer count has since more than doubled in size to 150 officers and nearly 50 more staff.
The former facility on Rock Street will undergo some renovations and eventually serve as home to a few departments, including parks administration.
The new campus public entrance and lobby is open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visitors can access the lobby after normal operating hours on an as-needed basis and use an intercom system to contact dispatchers.
Sgt. Anthony Murphy, the departments’ public information officer, said plans for a building dedication ceremony and community tours will be announced later this month.
