The building that was supposed to be a temporary headquarters for the New Bedford Police Department back in 1999 has now been the department’s home for a quarter-century. 

“This was a grocery store,” Chief Jason Thody said. “It never was designed or built to serve as a police department.”

“We’ve invested in it to keep police officers safe, but in the long run, they need to be in a real police headquarters,” New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said, adding that building a new headquarters would be more cost-effective. 

A new facilities study by the planning and architectural firm Caolo & Bieniek Associates Inc. that examined city-owned spaces recommends 360 Coggeshall Street as the location of that new building, citing its “central location throughout the City of New Bedford, adjacencies to the Downtown development, ample utilities to serve a building of this size and existing infrastructure for police traffic patterns and resident access.”

See more at wpri.com.