THUNDER BAY – The new headquarters for the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service is bigger than the old one – and definitely better, says the First Nations police force’s chief.
“I came back to the police service in March of this year, so a lot of this was already done by then,” Chief Terry Armstrong said in an interview in the Balmoral Street HQ’s media room.
The service had “grown out of” its old Court Street headquarters, he said.
Armstrong said the new digs include room for specialty units and “room to give people their office space and, you know, a better working environment all around.”
The new headquarters occupy space on all three storeys of 973 Balmoral St. An engineering firm has some space on the ground floor. The Business Development Bank of Canada has a regional office on the second floor.
The police service, which has about 260 uniformed officers in 34 communities across northern Ontario, quietly moved its headquarters last year.
It also has a Northeast office in Cochrane and a Northwest office in Sioux Lookout, as well as local detachments.
One feature of the new headquarters that wasn’t at the old one is a media room with lighting and acoustics for broadcast reporters attending news conferences.
Behind that is a ventilated room for smudging.
Other new things at 973 Balmoral include a gym and training rooms.
The media room is on the first floor. Training rooms are found on the building’s second and third floor.
Second-floor facilities include fitness equipment, a three-screen virtual-reality situation simulator and a “dynamic simulation area.”
The dynamic simulation area has simulated household rooms (living room, kitchen, etc.) for training on response at homes. The “furniture and appliances” in these rooms are made of soft foam and the floors are padded to reduce the risk of injury.
Other police services have used the training facilities, said Const. Kyle Lagrange of the NAPS in-service training unit.
NAPS is also moving toward setting up new Northwest and Northeast regional headquarters, Armstrong said.
“It’s all built into the plan. We’re getting more infrastructure, some new detachments, some new headquarters.”
The Northeast office is in Cochrane right now but the new one “might be at a different location,” he said. “That’s up to the board of directors.”
NAPS is the largest First Nations police service in Canada.
