Tallahassee commissioners conflicted over plans for new $135 million police HQ

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Tallahassee commissioners and members of the public expressed conflicting feelings towards plans for a new $135 million police department headquarters during a Wednesday meeting.

The commission unanimously voted in 2020 that the Northwood Centre would host the eventual new headquarters for the Tallahassee Police Department.

City Manager Reese Goad explained the history behind how the city originally purchased the space and eventually determined it a good location for the headquarters.

The commission was provided updates on the progress of the site, including the increased costs that are needed in order to make the “state-of-the-art” facility a reality.

They were also shown similar infrastructure projects in the city to compare how their estimated costs are “valid” and reasonable.

Commissioner Jeremy Matlow argued that the price would eventually go up and the city would need to go further into debt in order to fund the construction as time went on.

“This project is astronomically expensive,” he said. “That’s something we should have long community conversations about and that’s something I’ve been asking to have at our budget workshop, year after year after year.”

“Over a year ago I said this project would cost about $140 million and I could do that just by looking at the costs of these types of facilities, even the more extravagant ones, and where those costs landed,” he said.

Matlow emphasized that, although he believes a new police station is needed, its important to be fiscally responsible.

“Have we gone too far when we start saying things like ‘state-of-the-art’ and ‘top-of-the-line?'” he asked. “To me that’s just dollars and dollars tacking up.”

Goad reassured the board and the public that the costs and time frame associated with the project was accurate and transparent.

Tallahassee Chief of Police Lawrence Revell spoke on the many benefits of the proposed designs of the project, including a professionally equipped training area and firing range for recruits.

Commissioner Jacqueline Porter expressed her own hesitancies about the building by stating how she wished the board and the public were more openly involved in the process of determining all of the cost options.

Bernard Steven, a candidate running to unseat current Commissioner Curtis Richardson, expressed his disapproval of the project. He specifically claimed that the city had been purposely preventing the public from seeing the cost estimates until recently.

He blamed Goad for “hiding” the numbers and refusing to discuss them during public meetings.

Stanley Sims, another member of the community, spoke out against the costs, but reaffirmed his support for police officers.

“This is not an anti-police thing,” he said. “I appreciate our law enforcement officers.”

He provided an example one time when he was participating in a Black Lives Matter protest and he collapsed due to dehydration. A Tallahassee police officer helped him access water and get back on his feet.

“So it’s not about you. It’s about fiscal reasonability,” he said.

Other members of the public emphasized the need to address crime, poverty and unemployment issues. Because of this, they believed that the funding for the police station was unnecessary.

Further updates will be presented to the board as time progresses.

The headquarters is expected to be completed in 2026.