Renovations on the new Georgia Southern University Police Department building are complete.

The new building, located on Forest Drive near Sweetheart Circle, was completed in December 2018.

“They pretty much gutted it and started over from scratch,” Chief Laura McCullough said.

According to an email from Matthew Shingler, director of facilities, planning, design and construction, the total project budget for the renovation/expansion of the building was $2,500,000.

Some features of the new building include bullet-resistant glass on the front windows of the building and the windows of the conference room, larger, more protected dispatch area, a roll call room/classroom, a protected armory and a records room.

“We’ve made specialized spaces, like for our armory. It’s reinforced and protected, so if there are any kind of issues or problems it won’t be a safety hazard,” McCullough said. “Our records room has been separated out, whereas we had it in with something else before.”

There is also much more space throughout the building, including larger offices and areas so the officers can work more efficiently.

“We gave a lot more space to our officers. The space wasn’t made for its purpose; we just made it sort of function as we had to, so it makes it easier for our officers to get in,” McCullough said. “There are a lot more computers for them to use so they can get in and out a lot quicker when they’re doing reports.”

The new building also boasts an increase in technology, which will help the department better serve the GS community.

“There are a lot of things that we have done that make the department as a whole function better,” McCullough said, “which means that we can get in and out, and the officers can spend their time out on campus with the community instead of in here trying to do paperwork.”

The UPD is located at 1220 Forest Drive.

Rachel Adams, The George-Anne Enterprise Reporter, gaeditor@georgiasouthern.edu