El Paso County commissioners approve $15 million substation for sheriff’s office near Falcon
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KKTV) - The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office is moving forward with a substation in the Falcon area, an area that’s seen significant growth in recent years.
County commissioners voted unanimously in favor of the new substation. The sheriff’s office says the substation will service northern and eastern El Paso County, where calls for service have increased by 40% to the north and 58% to the east between 2010 and 2020 according to EPSO.
Sheriff Joe Roybal says he intends to move half of EPSO’s patrol resources to the new substation, whereas currently all deputies are based out of the agency’s downtown Colorado Springs headquarters.
The budget for the new substation is $15 million and would come out of the sheriff’s office budget, about $1.2 million annually for 20 years until it is paid off.
El Paso County Commissioners Vice Chair Carrie Geitner says the land on which the substation would be built was donated by the Falcon Fire Protection District. She says, so far, she’s heard citizens are in favor of having more law enforcement presence in the eastern part of the county.
“There is quite a bit of excitement in the community over the substation. Obviously, as Falcon has grown, there’s increased need to just have visibility ... A lot of folks are excited about having that visibility, and seeing faster response times potentially from the sheriff’s office.” Geitner said. “The most important job we have as a government is to make sure that people are safe, public safety is huge.”
The sheriff shared the following statement following the approval:
“I am excited to see this financing approved and eager to take the next steps towards building an El Paso County Sheriff’s Office substation in eastern unincorporated El Paso County.
El Paso County consists of more than 2,100 square miles, and the majority of the Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction is located east of Colorado Springs.
This substation will allow our patrol deputies assigned near this area, to spend more time responding to public safety needs in the district, eliminating travel time to the Office of the Sheriff for daily briefings and reducing trips to the El Paso County Jail to book arrestees.
In recent years, the Pikes Peak region has experienced a rapid rate of growth, which is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. This substation will allow our Office to better respond to calls for service, which have grown over 50 percent in some areas of unincorporated El Paso County.
As the Sheriff, I am focused on improving customer service to our citizens, building and maintaining public trust, reducing victims, holding criminals accountable, and growing my Office to meet the community’s needs.
I thank the Board of County Commissioners for their confidence in this project and will keep the community apprised as we move forward with this much-needed and anticipated facility.”
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