City wants to protect police HQ with a wall

The city has asked for bids on a $175,000 stone wall and metal fence to protect the Police Operations Center south of downtown Colorado Springs against a car or truck bomb being driven into the headquarters building that houses police administrators, dispatchers, the emergency operations center and investigators.

Police Lt. David Whitlock said Tuesday that the wall, which would be paid for by a federal grant, was recommended after an assessment of the building at 705 S. Nevada Ave. in 2005 by the Colorado National Guard for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"It concluded that we have critical infrastructure in this building, and it needs to be protected," he said. "We would be remiss to not take action to protect this facility so we can continue to serve the community in the manner we do."

The building has not been rammed by a vehicle since it opened in April 1993, but Whitlock said that didn't matter.

"How many times did planes strike the World Trade Center before 2001?" Whitlock said. "The purpose of hardening our structure is because we have critical operations here."

Whitlock said the Homeland Security Department contacted the Colorado Springs Police Department in 2004 or 2005 asking if it would like a security assessment.

"We said ‘yes,' and that's when they did the assessment," he said.

After that, the city was told it could apply for federal funds to pay for the stone wall, which the city did.

The city recently posted the project for competitive bids, which are due Sept. 9. The wall is to be built by Feb. 1.

The barrier, consisting of a stone wall up to 4 feet tall with fencing on top of that in some spots on the building's west, north and east sides, will be strong enough to defend against a 15,000-pound vehicle going 30 mph, meeting a State Department "anti-ram" rating.

A commercial van, the vehicle of choice for car bombers, according to the Defense Department, weighs about 14,000 pounds.

"It's not going to affect public ingress or egress into the building, and it will be architecturally similar to the walls we already have that serve that purpose," Whitlock said, referring to short stone stubs on the building's north side.

Whitlock said he thinks the project was approved by council some time ago when the grant was received, but two council members said Tuesday they didn't recall hearing about it.

"My gut reaction is, why?" Councilman Randy Purvis said. "It's still taxpayer money, but for the city budget, at least, it's a passthrough item. It won't take away money from other programs."

Councilman Darryl Glenn said he'd like to know more about it.

"We should scrutinize that. I would have remembered that if it came across to us," he said. "I would be interested to know if we've already committed to approving that. You want to be sure money is being spent appropriately."

El Paso County Sheriff 's Office spokesman Sgt. Andrew Prehm said he knew of no plans to build a wall around the sheriff 's headquarters next to the courthouse downtown.

Karen Renshaw, Colorado Association of Police Chiefs executive director, said she wasn't aware of any other cities building barriers around their police department headquarters.

Whitlock said police substations don't have protective walls but are designed to guard against damage from vehicles.