Gov. Mark R. Warner announced the official opening of the new Virginia State Police Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center in Richmond last Friday.
The new facility will be run by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. It will centralize emergency response personnel by combining the State Police Headquarters, the Emergency Operations Center and the new Fusion Center in a $15 million, 98,000-square-foot facility located in Chesterfield County.
"All the way around, I think citizens should be confident that this can only improve Virginia's ability to respond quickly and effectively," Warner spokesperson Kevin Hall said. "No doubt that homeland security is a paramount concern of all Americans. We've seen with Katrina the nation as a whole more focused on the need of government to be up to respond quickly and effectively when citizens are in need."
The old VSP headquarters, built in 1939, was a 2,000-square-foot bunker located underneath the Virginia State Police Academy, Hall said.
According to Hall, the facility was inadequate because it was cramped, prone to flooding and made cell phones, Blackberries and other digital technology inaccessible.
VSP had outgrown its facility so much so that it had to rent out space outside of the facility to house some of its personnel offices, VSP Public Relations Manager Corrine Geller said.
It was "just not practical for the Virginia State Police when they have to go into any kind of crisis situation," Geller said.
The new VSP Headquarters is more modern and efficient. In addition to having satellite capabilities, it has an airborne contaminant detection system and an uninterruptible power supply, which is capable of independently supplying electrical power to the building for up to 10 days, Geller said.
"It fuses together and streamlines our ability to work with local law enforcement and makes for a more efficient distribution of information, which is essential and critical in a crisis situation," she said.
Although the new EOC is connected to the old Virginia State Police Headquarters, the old facility will probably close or only be used as storage space, Hall said.
Another feature of the new EOC facility will be the Fusion Center. It will permanently house agents from the FBI, the Virginia Department of Fire programs, the Virginia National Guard and the VSP and will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Hall said.
It is a "place for law enforcement at all levels to trade and share information in hopes that federal and state authorities can react more quickly and identify trends that could be a concern more quickly," he said.
Local law enforcement also will allow state and national agencies to work closer with local law enforcement, Geller said.
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