Council approves $7.8 million renovations to Savannah police headquarters, new bodycams

On Thursday, Savannah City Council approved two agenda items that would invest a total of about $8.5 million in Savannah Police Department.

Council’s approval on both items allows for the spending of $7.8 million to renovate the police headquarters building on Habersham Street, the oldest operating police headquarters in the country, and another $696,000 to contract with Axon Enterprises for police equipment. 

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The headquarters building at 201 Habersham St. will include interior renovations and repairs to the building envelope, which is the physical separator between the conditioned and unconditioned environment of a building.

The envelope repairs will include replacing the windows and the HVAC system and adding insulation to the exterior wall. The bricks will be repointed, which means repairing mortar that may be loose or cracked.

For the interior repairs, Johnson-Laux will be working to remove asbestos and lead, install new flooring and a new IT infrastructure, create new office space, replace existing light fixtures with LED ones, upgrade the hot water system and replace ceiling tiles and dated wall treatments.

The police headquarters building is considered a historic building, and a contributing building to Savannah’s Landmark Historic District. 

New equipment

After council’s approval Thursday, Savannah police will renew the contract they’ve had with Axon since 2018, using the company's body-worn cameras and tasers. As that contract nears expiration, this new one has been negotiated to take its place, with a few new benefits that the city says are "intended to enhance police transparency and efficiency."

Those new benefits include access to Axon’s Respond+ software, which allows police to monitor up to 25 live streaming devices at once, including body cameras, drones and in-car monitors.

Additionally, Savannah police will now have access to Signal Sidearm, an Axon software that wirelessly activates Axon body-worn cameras to begin recording when an officer removes their gun from its holster.   

Other new facets of the contract include Axon's 3rd party video playback and storage solution, their AI-based redaction software and an auto-transcription software.

The first year of the five year contract will cost the city $696,000, then increase to $1,291,400.79 yearly until 2027, bringing the total cost of the contract to $5,861,602.80.

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Council comments

District 4 Alderman Nick Palumbo said the approval of the police headquarters renovations, as well the renovations approved Thursday for Savannah City Hall and the Gamble Building were important for protecting Savannah's identity as a historic city.

“In a city that's built upon history, layers upon layers of history, we need to be the tip of the spear when it comes to protecting our historic properties and our brand as a city,” Palumbo said at the meeting.

Throughout the meeting, At-Large Post 2 Alderwoman Alicia Miller Blakely questioned City Manager Jay Melder about the process the city uses to choose contractors to perform work for the city, noting that Johnson-Laux appeared on many agenda items, not just at Thursday’s meeting, but throughout her time on council.

“This, Mr. City Manager is exactly what I've talked about. Here you have Johnson-Laux again. And let me make it clear, I bring up these questions and these comments and these concerns so that the public will know what is actually going on,” Miller Blakely said in reference to the police headquarters renovation.

Two other major historic preservation items were approved by council on Thursday as well, the repairs and renovations for City Hall’s council chambers and rotunda, as well as the city-owned Gamble building. Ethos Preservation was contracted for City Hall, in the amount of $490,395. For the Gamble building, the city contracted with Johnson-Laux again, for $960,833.

“I know that there are many other contractors in our city that can do the job that these individuals are doing, if they had the opportunity to do so,” Miller Blakely said.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Council passes $7.8 million renovation to Savannah police headquarters