New Waterloo police station opens in downtown Kitchener

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Friday morning to mark the opening of the new Waterloo Regional Police Service’s Central Division.

The station, which is located in downtown area of Kitchener, will also play host to community events while also having a new prisoner management facility, according to police.

“This facility provides a crucial meeting space for all of our community partners to join together to help build the safest an healthiest community possible,” Chiaf Mark Crowell said.

“It will also serve as a centralized co-ordination point for the deployment of a wide variety of operational teams committed to public safety and community wellbeing.”

They say the building will house a number of community policing units including Neighbourhood Policing, the Community Engagement Unit, the Direct Action Response Team, and the Drugs and Firearms Team.

The building has been under renovations for several years. It was purchased a few years ago by the region.

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“When Regional Council and the Waterloo Police Services Board made the decision to purchase this property, looking ahead to the future of our community, we couldn’t have imagined how quickly our community would change and grow,” Regional Chair Karen Redman said.

“Since then, we’ve added thousands of residents and will welcome hundreds of thousands more in the coming decades. The WRPS Central Division Supports a thriving diverse and rapidly growing community.”

Central Division is moving just down road as it will replace the old station at 134 Frederick Street in its new location at the corner of Frederick and Lancaster streets.

Police had been working out of that station for 65 years, which is 15 years before the WRPS was launched as Waterloo Region was formed.

Waterloo Region CAO Bruce Lauckner told Global News that the future of the old building remains under discussion and that options will be presented to council at some point down the road.