BPS plans new operations centre

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This article was published 06/03/2025 (246 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Police Service is looking to further expand its footprint in the community with the creation of a new $4.5-million police operations centre.

The project involves the purchase and retrofit of an existing building in the city that will be funded through the police reserve in the amount of $1.7 million, with the remaining $2.8 million borrowed by the city as a debenture.

“A lot of different alternatives were reviewed, including constructing a new facility was determined just to be cost-prohibitive at this time,” Troy Tripp, the City of Brandon’s director of finance, said during Monday evening’s public hearing on the matter. “And they also looked at leasing existing space in the short term. Leasing is favourable, but our analysis showed that there was long-term benefits to purchasing a property.”

Council had passed a motion in December 2024 approving the administration to proceed with the acquisition and to prepare the debenture bylaw, but staff put the process on hold until the city budget was completed “in anticipation of any potential changes to the funding sources,” Tripp said.

The retrofit of an existing building would require the installation of a fibre network connection, and the construction of security infrastructure within the building.

The current police station on Victoria Avenue was constructed in 2012 over the frame of a former Safeway grocery store. Tripp said that the building was already at capacity when the Brandon Police Service moved in on day one.

Tripp says the police station does have modular walls within it, and they’ve already maximized capacity by adjusting how those walls have been spaced over the last decade. In the meantime, it’s estimated that there are now an additional 70 personnel working out of the building on a 24-7 basis.

“Some of the impacts that they’re experiencing (include) overcrowding up to four or five officers working or sharing one workstation,” Tripp said. “It’s not productive to efficient operations, and there’s a lack of secure storage for police equipment and different fleet equipment that police use in their operations.”

The city and the police service have had this project on the back burner for a number of years. In 2024, it finally made the 10-year capital plan and was moved forward as part of the 2025 budget.

Last January, council moved to reduce the Brandon Police Service budget by $450,000, and voted in favour of reducing the reduction of $300,000 to the appropriation to reserve, which was then added to the planned debenture.

The police service has been receiving approximately $300,000 in additional annual funding from the province and putting it aside for the purchase and retrofit of a property for this purpose.

Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett said that an opportunity came up with an existing building, which pushed the project forward this year. He says annual payments on the city’s debenture, which would likely fall between $349,798.82 and $391,774.68 — depending upon the borrowing rate — would be handled by the Brandon Police Board.

“It’s one of those rare times that they had close to half of the money put away,” Fawcett said, adding that there may be an opportunity for more funding from the province due to partnerships with other police forces.

“The police are continuing their discussions with justice and others about the possibility of other funding for this,” Fawcett said. “It could include some shared spaces, there could be other projects that are going on, so they’re going to continue to do that.”

The administration is currently in the process of negotiating a purchase on property in the city, said Fawcett, who also told the Sun that he could not currently disclose the location as a result.

Fawcett said that the Victoria Avenue facility would continue to be the public face of the Brandon Police Service, with the secondary building holding more of the major crimes investigations and research teams.

“It wouldn’t be a public building,” Fawcett said.

No member of the public came to speak out against or for the borrowing bylaw during the public meeting, and it passed first reading on Monday evening.

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