LYNCHBURG, Va. – Lynchburg Police can’t wait to move into their new headquarters.
Chief Ryan Zuidema and his team have been anticipating move-in day for some time and they will still have to wait until February 2025 to officially move in.
On Thursday, Zuidema was joined by the Lynchburg Police Foundation to announce the ‘Honor Garden’. The garden will have four plaques honoring the lives of four Lynchburg police officers who died in the line of duty.
“It’s a permanent way to remember the folks that we haven’t had the ability to publicly in the past,” Zuidema said.
When the department moves into the new building, it will be the first time every officer and employee has been under the same roof since the 90′s.
“We’re in three different buildings. They’re separated by about a block each and I know it doesn’t seem like a long distance but just the reality of getting to all those buildings regularly for our folks to interact is important,” Zuidema said. “We want to make sure everyone from our patrol officers to our detectives to our professional staff are in the same facility.”
The hope is for the new headquarters to act as a real-time crime center. Some of the work to address violent crime has already been done through a youth curfew, which was extended by city council earlier in the week.
“I definitely think there’s a correlation between the curfew being in place and the low numbers. It’s certainly not the only cause of that,” Zuidema said. “We’ve done a lot of great police work in the community. We’ve had a lot of great partners in the community come forward and step up.”
The new facility is also more centrally located compared to the current downtown station.
“Our hope is that it will give us a little better access to the rest of the community,” Zuidema said.