Grayslake police in new home

Grayslake police have moved into what should be their longtime home in the village's downtown.

Movers worked Tuesday to haul furniture, equipment, boxes and files from the old police headquarters on Whitney Street a block east to the new facility on Seymour Avenue.

Although telephones for the police department's administrative staff weren't functional for all of Tuesday, said Grayslake Assistant Village Manager Matt Formica, that didn't affect emergency service because dispatching is contracted to Fox Lake.

Grayslake's newest public building will provide state-of-the-art amenities to police. For example, the structure has individual camera-mounted jail cells adjacent to a central booking area.

"It's pretty exciting," Formica said. "It's a mess, but it's pretty exciting."

Grayslake's new police headquarters is attached to village hall in the downtown west of Route 83. Officials said the setup will provide greater efficiency when village government and police administrators need to meet.

One highlight of the $3.5 million structure is that it has a direct entrance from the street and into a garage near jail cells. Known as a sally port, the garage will lock before officers bring suspected criminals into the jail area.

Police Operations Cmdr. Matt McCutcheon said the jail is a significant upgrade in the new building. There are four individual cells with sinks and toilets for suspects who now can be held longer than eight hours.

McCutcheon said until now, the Lake County jail or lockups in other suburbs would be used to accommodate suspects who couldn't post bail in eight hours or less because the old Grayslake police station lacked toilet facilities for them. He said that forced Grayslake police officers to spend extra time transporting the suspects to lockups and bond hearings.

"We'd have to put a prisoner in a car and drive them to Antioch and pick them up the next day," McCutcheon said.

Officials said the $3.5 million building came in on budget and on time. Plans call for the old police station on Whitney Street to be purchased by a developer and later demolished for a project that includes condominiums.