Residents listen as Plain City Police Chief Dale McKee, pictured at center, speaks during a tour of the new Plain City Police Department. Directly behind McKee is a door to the department’s safe room, which is open 24/7 to individuals in distress. Those in need can enter a door on the other side of the room, which will lock behind them until an officer is on the scene to assist them. (Journal-Tribune photo by Kayleen Petrovia)
As residents toured the new Plain City Municipal Building, they saw a number of features in the police department designed with them in mind.
“We want to keep potential victims as safe as they can possibly be,” said Lt. Tom Jaskiewicz.
Among those features is a safe room available to the public 24/7.
“Over the years, we’ve had people at the police department – the old building – in need of immediate assistance and protection,” Jaskiewicz said.
However, while Plain City Police Department officers are on duty 24/7, the building itself is not staffed throughout the night.
Jaskiewicz said that could previously pose problems for those who are fleeing from an immediate danger, because “there might not be someone here.”
“That left people vulnerable,” he said.
The safe room ensures that individuals in need have a secure space until an officer is with them.
Jaskiewicz said several nearby police departments have similar safe rooms, including the Marysville Police Department.
Although MPD has its own dispatch (PCPD uses dispatch services from the Union County Sheriff’s Office), Jaskiewicz said officers are generally on patrol and out of the department overnight.
He said that makes an around-the-clock secure space even more valuable.
“We knew the safe room was necessary,” when designing the new police department building, Jaskiewicz said.
Any resident in distress can enter the municipal building and walk through an open door to their left. After closing the door behind them, it will immediately lock.
The outside of the door has no handle, so any threatening person could not open it to enter the safe room.
The door to the safe room, along with the glass in front of the administrative desk, are bullet resistant. Even the drywall surrounding the two are Kevlar-infused, Jaskiewicz said.
“Everything along that wall is secure and sealed,” he said.
Inside the 7-foot by 8-foot room is an intercom-style call box that can be used to connect to a police dispatcher.
Jaskiewicz noted that anyone in the safe room should not exit until help arrives.
The opposite wall from the door they entered has another door into the police department, so officers can enter through that side.
The safe room will most likely be used in instances of domestic violence, Jaskiewicz said, though he said it may also be used in other cases involving an assault or road rage incidents. It will be useful to anyone seeking a “safe corner,” he said.
Jaskiewicz said the safe room was used approximately three months ago by an individual experiencing a mental health crisis.
He said the individual was able to have a sense of safety until officers could confirm that no one was following them.
“We wanted (a safe room) for situations just like that,” Jaskiewicz said.
The safe room is one of many features thoughtfully added to the police department.
The building is so detail-oriented that there is a strip of blue carpet representing the “thin blue line” across the floor.
During a tour of the building, Chief Dale McKee also showed residents the new sally port behind the building. It features a device for officers to scan an ID before the garage door opens for only eight seconds, preventing anyone from following them in.
Once an officer enters the building with a suspect, they can use a touch-screen monitor to activate cameras that capture activity in that hallway.
In the patrol office, McKee also demonstrated new evidence lockers which lock permanently from one side once the officer switches a tab. Only McKee and specific police department leaders have access to a key that opens the lockers from the opposite side.
McKee said this ensures the integrity of any physical evidence and alleviates any liability issues among officers.
Conference rooms also have desks with outlets and electronic ports that officers can use to mirror their computer screens on TVs. Glass surrounding the conference room has decals resembling etched glass that depict the PCPD logo, made by a local artist.
The windows of detectives’ offices also have etched glass, McKee said, so confidential informants or victims of crimes have privacy.
McKee was particularly happy to share that the new building has separate restrooms not only for men and women, but also for perpetrators and suspects.