Isla Vista Foot Patrol officers are busy outfitting their brand spanking new sheriff station on Trigo Road in preparation for the start of another school year.

The new 6500-sq-ft facility, located at 6504 Trigo Road, is nearly three times the size of the IVFP’s previous headquarters on Pardall Road. The two-story building features a formal lobby, interview rooms, holding cells, a garage, a briefing room and increased office space, all of which were lacking in the former IVFP office.

According to Lt. Brian Olmstead, the new patrol station is the first in Isla Vista specifically designed for law enforcement functions. In the 38 years since the Foot Patrol’s inception, the Sheriff’s Dept. has leased various commercial spaces around Isla Vista and converted them into stations. Previous locations included the current site of Emerald Video and a site on Embarcadero Del Norte near Super Cuca’s.

“We always had to make do with what we had at the time,” Olmstead said. “The new station makes things easier on us, and easier on the community.”

Of particular benefit to deputies and arrestees alike are the new holding cells, Olmstead said. The two cells each feature a toilet and a cement bench – but, Olmstead emphasized, no bars.

“These are just temporary spaces to keep people while we process paperwork,” he said. “Before, we just had the office rooms, and witnesses, victims and suspects were all kept together. It just wasn’t safe.”

“Now, when people are arrested they can come here, we can book and un-cuff them, and they can have a place to wait before we can take them to the main jail,” Olmstead continued. “It’s a safer operation for everyone.”

The new building will also include office space for two full-time detectives to work on Isla Vista cases.

The construction of the new facility, which cost roughly four million dollars, was financed by funds from a previously allocated Certificate of Participation, and broke ground in September of last year.

The new facility was constructed on land owned by the University of California. In exchange for use of the land, the Sheriff’s Dept. will turn over the building to the university in 40 years, Olmstead said.

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