When Boca Raton’s current police station was constructed in 1987, replacing a smaller building from 1965, the city’s population was a mere 58,000 residents and required a workforce of 145 employees to protect them. Fast forward to 2025, and the same building is “bursting at the seams,” officials said, with the population having more than doubled along with the department’s manpower, at 331 employees including sworn officers and civilians.
For the better part of the last two decades, officials have debated the location and design of a new police headquarters. In the interim, members of the department have had to branch out to locations around the city to carry out their duties, with many functions remaining in the 1987 building at 100 NW Boca Raton Boulevard, and many having been transferred to the “6500 building” on Congress Avenue. The center of the city’s population has also shifted more toward the north and west as development expanded and the city annexed new parcels to form its modern shape. Officials now say they have a solid plan in place to build a new headquarters facility on Spanish River Boulevard, adjacent to the Spanish River Library, and that design and permitting could begin as early as next year.
The proposed location of a new police headquarters building in Boca Raton, FL, May 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
The proposed location of a new police headquarters building in Boca Raton, FL, May 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
“Work is really full-speed ahead on this project,” said Deputy City Manager Jim Zervis. “When you look at the square footage we’ve had historically, it helps paint the picture as to why we’re bursting at the seams in that older facility.”
Indeed, the current police headquarters building measures 30,000 square feet over 4.39 acres. The property along Spanish River Boulevard would provide room for an expansive campus over more than 19 acres. The building itself has not yet been designed – that part of the project is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2026 – but preliminary discussions have focused on choosing a location as well as what would need to be housed in a new facility.
“In the ‘80s, never would we have thought there would be computer crime units, threat assessment and risk protection units, drone units – those were not in anyone’s vision at the time,” said Police Chief Michele Miuccio. “We want to be a little more forward-looking and figure out what could be the future.”
Miuccio said she and her civilian colleagues at city hall are planning the new building to accommodate what the department will need through at least 2046. The new headquarters would also be more resident-friendly, with meeting rooms where residents can interact with police officers to discuss concerns, enhanced security features to protect visitors, safe swap zones for eBay transactions and parents who carpool, a child car seat installation area, and streamlined access for the pickup of reports and documents. The new building would also be more energy efficient, and located closer to I-95 and other main thoroughfares through town that would allow officers to fan out quickly in an emergency.
The proposed location of a new police headquarters building in Boca Raton, FL, May 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
The proposed location of a new police headquarters building in Boca Raton, FL, May 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
Even with a new building, some of the department’s functions would still be located in the 6500 building and what is envisioned as a downtown substation. The 6500 building currently houses a training facility, a communications facility, and a biological processing lab, as well as other special operations activities Miuccio said she would rather keep confidential. Those would remain there. But most land-intensive facilities, such as a firing range, would be located at the new headquarters.
“One of the biggest problems we have is that our building has aged so much, there is vulnerability to weather,” said Miuccio. “We have to evacuate our building if there is a storm coming.”
Since the current headquarters was built prior to Hurricane Andrew, it does not comply with current storm-proofing codes and cannot withstand a category five storm. In what would be a major emergency in Boca Raton, the building would likely have to be evacuated during such a storm.
Replacing the current building on its current footprint is impractical, Zervis said.
“We are constrained by development on all sides,” he told council members. “Right now, with the train tracks on one side and traffic that is downtown and in the residential communities, it makes things challenging.”
A new, centrally-located headquarters could coexist with the library and its adjacent walking paths while providing better all-around access for officers before they begin patrols in their districts.
“It will not inhibit the public path around the lake,” said Zervis. “We are trying to preserve that amenity. There is a culvert that runs along Spanish River Boulevard that we’re having to contend with as part of the design, but that’s something we’re looking at now. It’s much easier for staff to be able to respond for calls for service, jumping on I-95 or NW 2nd. They can get east-west much more efficiently from that location than the current location.”
Zervis said the current schedule calls for design and permitting to begin at the start of 2026, preliminary site construction to begin in the first quarter of 2027, and completion and move-in expected by the first quarter of 2029.
“We have been talking about the replacement police facility for some time,” said City Manager George Brown. “This is something we need to do regardless of what else may be occurring. It’s been discussed for at least ten years, maybe fifteen years.”
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