A Brief History of Police Facilities in Portsmouth
Penhallow Street
The Portsmouth Police Department was formerly housed at 30 Penhallow Street after the Rockingham County Jail vacated the building in 1950. The police department utilized this facility, built in 1891, as the Police Station for 41 years prior to moving to 3 Junkins Avenue in 1991.
The Move to Junkins Avenue
In 1991 the city expended $3.6 million dollars renovating 38,000 square feet (about the area of a large mansion), in the 1962 section of the old Portsmouth Hospital. This renovated space has housed the police department and been used by police staff 24/7/365 for the last 32 years.
Facility Updates
Updates to the facility include a 2003, 1.5-million-dollar grant award to renovate the Portsmouth Police Public Safety Dispatch Center and radio system. The grant funds were awarded after the department participated in a “Top Off” exercise, simulating a mass casualty event in Portsmouth. The funding made it possible for the Department to migrate from old analogue radios to digital radio transmissions, which included a new radio antenna system on top of City Hall, and throughout the City.
More recently, the Department, again, had to update the public safety radio system to improve and modernize public safety communications in the City.
As part of the 2018 City Hall façade project, the police department lobby and front façade were updated.
However, due to of the façade work, mold was revealed throughout the Police Department because of water infiltrating the old brick and window frames along with leaks in the roof over the Police Department, and in pipe insulation. The mold abatement project has been on-going ever since, with one remaining area to be abated and refinished with new walls, paint, and flooring like the other sections of the Department. This work is anticipated to be completed in 2023.
Despite the surface updates, the fact that cannot be changed is that the Police Department is housed in a 61-year-old section of a former hospital, that does not lend itself to 21st century needs and Community Policing.