Officials from across Essex County come together for the opening of the new Sheriff’s Patrol Headquarters in Newark.
NEWARK, NJ — On Dec. 14, the county announced the opening of the new Sheriff’s Patrol Headquarters on Market Street in Newark. Patrol operations will be relocated from the Parks Administration Building across from Branch Brook Park to the modern facility that took just seven months to complete.
“Our officers have been working from the same building for the last 100 years and have simply outgrown their current space. This new police building is a state-of-the-art facility that will help our officers conduct their duties more efficiently and meet the growing demands that are placed on our law enforcement officials,” Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. said. “We want to make sure our sheriff’s officers have the proper resources to help keep us safe, and this new facility provides the room they need to operate.”
“This new and strategically located Patrol Division headquarters will further propel our entire department into 21st-century community policing. Community policing is about bringing the police closer to the residents, and this new building will be a focal point for the neighborhood,” Sheriff Armando Fontoura said. “Our great city’s West Ward will now have a centrally located precinct that will be fully staffed by our Patrol Division detective bureau and our countywide traffic bureau. The facility will be fully equipped with all the most modern public safety and crime prevention tools.”
The Sheriff’s Patrol Headquarters is located on the corner of Market Street and Myrtle Avenue in Newark’s West Ward, and is across the street from the Essex County Donald M. Payne School of Technology that currently is under construction. The one-story, 8,000-square-foot building is a fully functioning police station with holding cells, locker rooms for officers, a roll call area for officers to gather at the start of their shifts, expanded storage areas for records, evidence and equipment, conference room and offices.
The Patrol Division offices were relocated from the Parks Administration Building at 115 Clifton Ave. in Newark, where they had been housed since the building opened in 1916. The division occupied part of the first floor and basement, and the cramped, out-of-date conditions were not conducive to efficient operations.
Comito Associates from Newark received a $177,500 contract to design the Sheriff’s Patrol Headquarters. Aps Contracting from Paterson was awarded a publicly bid contract for $3,585,285 to construct the building. The Essex County Department of Public Works monitored the project to ensure it was completed according to schedule. Construction of the building was funded through the Essex County capital budget. It was completed in just seven months, one month ahead of schedule.
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