Police station opens its doors to the public

The Rockville Centre Police Department opened its doors to the public on Saturday morning, for its first-ever open house event at its new state-of-the-art headquarters located at 142 Maple Avenue.

After more than 125 years of serving the village, the Rockville Centre Police Department has grown from a one-man operation to a full 56-member police force.

“Our police have a long history of protecting all who live, work and visit our beautiful village,” Rockville Centre Mayor Francis Murray said during its grand opening event on Oct. 29. “With our growing need for a larger facility we as a board acted with very quick diligence and the end result is what you see behind me today.”

It was announced back in June that the department had officially relocated into the newly redesigned 10,000-square-foot facility. Over the weekend, elected officials joined members of the brass to commemorate the new facility with a ribbon cutting.

Following the ceremony, members of the community were invited to take a tour of the new police HQ.

“This project, as the mayor was saying was an enormous undertaking and it could not have been accomplished without the teamwork of all of our partners or vendors or politicians everybody that make it made it work that I’m very grateful to everyone involved,” Police Commissioner James Vafeades said. “This building will allow our department to grow and be in a better position to serve the people of Rockville Centre like they deserve.”

Vafeades led the tour around the department headquarters, walking the group into the communications and dispatch center, training areas, conference rooms, booking, the armory, and the holding cells.