New Precinct, Training Academy Coming To HarCo Sheriff's Office

ABERDEEN, MD — A central precinct will be added to the Harford County Sheriff's Office, county leaders announced Thursday afternoon in Aberdeen. In addition, the former HEAT Center will house the new training academy for the Harford County Sheriff's Office.

The precinct and training academy "could not be in a more appropriate and needed area," Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said during the news conference Thursday.

A Northern and Southern Precinct exist in Harford County now, in Jarrettsville and Edgewood, respectively.

Officers at the newly created Central Precinct will handle calls from Abingdon, Riverside, Bel Air, Level and Aberdeen, according to Gahler.

"These are all areas that have experienced significant growth over the past two decades, and it was vital that our office's growth follows this increase," Gahler said.

Over the next several years, the sheriff said he would like to add more people as well.

"We're talking to the county executive," Gahler said, about possibly adding 49 deputies "over the next several years."

The sheriff thanked Glassman for investing in infrastructure like computer network updates, car camera replacements and body cameras for deputies.

"Mr. Glassman has stood strong and invested in public safety during his years as our county executive," Gahler said. "He's funded salary packages that allowed us at the Harford County Sheriff's office last year for the very first time to reach a level of market competitiveness with those agencies that we compete with for our workforce."

A training academy could be an additional draw for new recruits.

Right now, Harford Community College houses the training academy in 3,500 square feet on its campus, Gahler said.

The new facility will provide 20,000 square feet, including locker rooms, training rooms, use-of-force simulator and community room.

According to the county executive, it will likely take one to two years for the building to be ready.

"As it's an existing building, we think it will move fairly quickly," Glassman said. Already, he said $2 million has been made available for design.

The only costs will be renovations like HVAC, roofing and "interior capital costs," Glassman said.

Watch the announcement about the new sheriff's office precinct and training academy:

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