SUFFOLK, Va. — Right now, there are two police precincts in Suffolk, one near downtown and another in the northern part of the city.
Now the police chief says it’s time for a third precinct.
“I’m your Suffolk neighborhood reporter Jessica Davis, and the chief tells me the reason is because of the city’s growth.”
“When I became a Suffolk police officer, we had about 50,000 residents and now we’re over 100,000 residents,” Chief James Buie said.
With more people and more traffic, Buie says a new precinct is needed, preferably between Route 58 and 460 for a quicker response.
“We have Route 460 that’s going to increase traffic out there. The growth is just headed that way, and we need to have a precinct to get ahead of that to increase visibility,” Buie said.
The chief is looking near the Holland Road area, around Kenyon. The estimated cost is between $11 million and $15 million, which would come from Suffolk’s Capital Improvement Fund.
“The need is there now. We don’t want to, as growth continues in our city, we don’t want to fall behind in our public safety. We need to keep up, or even stay ahead,” Buie said.
Right now, the department is still proposing the idea.
Chief Buie wants the new precinct as soon as possible, but it could take at least two years to complete.
“Reduce our response times for our citizens, just the visibility of the police in that corridor. It’s time, and it’s over time, that we had this third precinct,” he said.
Long-term, Buie sees Suffolk as a five-precinct city, a strategy he believes will help keep neighborhoods safe and officers close by.
