Indio City Council approves contracts for new police headquarters building

The Indio City Council on Wednesday approved two contracts related to the new Police Headquarters Building for the northeast corner of Jackson Street and Dr. Carreon Boulevard. 

The new building will replace the current headquarters built in 1979, which is located just to the north. The police headquarters building represents the final stage of the city’s new public safety campus.

Construction is already complete on a new fire station, a one-story communication dispatch center, and a two-story public safety services building, where departments such as code enforcement and fire prevention services are housed. 

The headquarters building will be “the primary facility for Police Officers, Sergeants, Community Service Officers, support staff, and Command staff including locker rooms, works stations, offices, gym / training area, meeting areas, interview rooms, and public areas,” according to a city staff report. 

Councilmember Benjamin Guitron, a retired police officer who worked for the Indio Police Department for 40 years, said the new building is long overdue, “We’ve been operating with half an AC unit because it’s kind of hard to put in the money,” he said. “You have to make sacrifices knowing that something like this is finally going to come.”

Guitron was involved with some of the planning, down to details like the size of bathrooms and how their design should take into consideration the amount of gear a typical officer is wearing.

Under the new contracts, DMC Enterprises will receive $1,664,000 for site demo and earthwork, and Valley Pipeline Services will handle site utilities for $1,475,000. The total amount approved on Wednesday is $3,139,000. 

Those contracts will allow the city to “mobilize for construction” this spring, according to Assistant City Manager Jonathan Nicks. City staff will bring additional contracts forward to the council in June for the second construction phase, which will likely come with a price tag of $5 to $6 million. The total project cost is around $45 million, and will replace the older headquarters building that was built around 50 years ago.

A groundbreaking ceremony is expected sometime this summer, and a ribbon cutting for the new building will likely be sometime in the winter of 2027-2028. After the new building is finished, the old headquarters building will be demolished. 

“We talked about the investments of sanitation. We’ve talked to the investments in our power. This is an investment,” said Guitron. “It’s not just a toy, it’s real front line service to our community. So I take great pride in that.”

---