FROM the moment in December when locals watched the first sections of the new Morisset police station being trucked to the site then lifted into position by crane, and assembled like a big Meccano set, they knew the building was special.
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Justice and Police Minister Troy Grant confirmed that view at the official opening of the $3.6 million station on Wednesday.
Morisset now has the state’s first major modular-constructed police station. What’s also unusual is that officers from Lake Macquarie Local Area Command share the building with the Dog Unit, and Police Transport Command.
“This is a unique police station in many regards,” Mr Grant said. “To have that co-operation across many units is appreciated.”
Mr Grant said he felt at home in Morisset.
“I had the privilege of working as an officer in this Local Area Command and know first-hand how critical and overdue this investment in police resourcing was for the community.”
Mr Grant said police understood that, ultimately, it was their work – not where they work – that mattered most.
“Police stations don’t arrest criminals. Police station don’t patrol our streets late at night. But what police stations like this modern facility we have here do is provide those who work within them the best facilities and base from which to work.”
He said those facilities would enable officers to work more efficiently at preventing and solving crime.
“This government is proud to provide frontline officers with the best resources to do their jobs and serve the community.”
And what of the building itself? Senior police were enthusiastic in their praise for the station, describing the facility as “state of the art” and “spectacular”.
Lake Macquarie Commander Superintendent Brett Greentree said the station sent an important message to the community.
“If it takes a village to raise a child then I’d suggest it takes a community to build a police station,” he said.
“This is a very strong and proud community, a community that supports their local police, a community that has worked hard to bring this project to fruition.”
He praised Lake Macquaire MP Greg Piper for being “a very important advocate for the building of this station”, and said locals had been quick to welcome the return of officers to Morisset with the opening of the new station.
Superintendent Greentree said up to 40 officers would work in the new station at any one time.
He welcomed the attendance on Wednesday of the command’s executive officer, Su Heaton, at the ceremony.
Mrs Heaton was the only surviving officer in the command who had been present at the official opening of the previous Morisset police station 20 years ago, he said.
“Unfortunately, the termites loved that building a little bit more than the community,” he said.
He said the new station was a “momentous change” for officers at Morisset.
“Great police deserve great facilities, and this facility is exactly that.”
Also among the guests at the ceremony was former police chief Les Norris, 81, who, with his wife Margaret, lived in the previous Morisset police station building in a small residence attached to a front office, which doubled as the police station, from 1971 to 1979.
The police lock-up was also attached to the residence.
Mr Norris said the lock-up was "a 12-foot by 12-foot room" and "more like a shed" than a cell.
Morisset is the second of three new police stations in the Lake Macquarie LAC to be built at a combined cost of $29 million.
Belmont was opened on March 24, and Toronto will be opened early in 2017.
When Toronto is completed, the Lake Macquarie Local Area Command would have “some of the best policing facilities in NSW,” Deputy Commissioner Frank Mennilli said.
