HAMILTON — About nine months from now, police officers should have more room for themselves, prisoners and evidence — and the public will have a “safe room” to shield them from would-be assailants.

        Renovation of police headquarters and expansion into the former Municipal Court space began last week at 335 S. Front St.

        “This is a no-frills remodel,” said Hamilton Police Capt. Steve Poulemanos. “We are strictly trying to make the vacant part of this building functional with the small amount of money that's available.”

        The court relocated to One Renaissance Center, at High Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, in February 2001. That freed 12,000 square feet for police, who have been crammed into a 15,000-square-foot section of the building since 1977.

        Funds for the $315,000 project came from repairing rather than replacing the building's roof and finding a less-costly, out-of-county jail to house city prisoners.

        Because the station is located in a former Kroger grocery store that was not designed for police use, some of the building's shortcomings will persist, Capt. Poulemanos said.

        “The renovations are really a Band-Aid on an already dysfunctional building,” he said, noting prisoners can have contact with civilians under the current setup.

        Still, the department's 117 sworn officers and about 30 civilian employees will get some breathing room. That should boost efficiency and morale, he said.

        The improvements include:

        • Quadrupling the size of the property room, where evidence is kept. About 30,000 items are overflowing from shelves in the existing 500-square-foot space. “It's like the walls are closing in,” said Property Officer Rob Payne.

        • About 50 percent more room for six records clerks (half part-timers). “We're working on top of each other,” said Records Supervisor Denise Anderson.

        • A “safe room” off the lobby, which may double as a conference room. A desk officer will control access to the locked room via a buzzer. The room is modeled after one used in a northern Ohio police agency, officials said, noting frightened citizens sometimes seek refuge in the police station.

        A department Hamilton's size needs about 52,000 square feet, “So even though we're expanding, we still only will have about half of what we need; We're a still a long way from where we need to be,” Capt. Poulemanos said.

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