6/13/2002
A state-of-the-art police station that will serve as headquarters for officers in the 12th District is slated for a West Side site under a plan approved Tuesday by the Public Building Commission of Chicago.
Acquisition of the site, along the west side of Ashland Avenue between 14th and 15th streets in the 2nd Ward, was approved by the PBC for the new 12th District Police Station, also known as the Monroe District. The site boundaries were altered since the location was proposed last year in an effort to reduce the land purchase cost, officials said. Public comment on the proposed site is invited and City Council approval is necessary.
The new 12th District facility, one of 11 new police stations being built under Mayor Richard Daley’s Neighborhoods Alive 21 program, will complement the community-based Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy with advanced crime-fighting technology, officials said. The 44,000-square-foot station also will feature a community meeting room, equipment for video bond hearings, a fitness room and new locker facilities to accommodate both male and female officers.
Police assigned to the 12th District have been working out of a station at 100 South Racine Avenue that was built in 1949. By the end of the Neighborhoods Alive 21 effort, the city will have replaced or renovated 19 police stations.
