Police Facility Initiative

The current location is critically undersized and lacks features essential to public safety. Key deficiencies include the absence of secure parking with designated facility access, and inadequate physical controls for safely transferring arrestees from vehicles to holding cells.

• Police vehicles use a public lot that is crowded during summer and special events. Officers have been blocked by traffic and tour buses trying to exit. This can delay responses to emergencies. A significant concern is the current potential for delayed responses to essential community locations, including:
  • Elementary, Middle and High Schools 
  • The hospital
  • Estes Park Event Center
  • Critical electric and water infrastructure
  • Olympus Dam
  • Downtown. Heavy traffic makes it difficult or impossible for emergency responders to access or pass through.
• The authorized personnel door opens directly onto a public sidewalk near the parking lot entrance, requiring officers to escort arrestees, including juveniles, through a highly visible area with vehicles and pedestrians.
• Insufficient space necessitates offsite rental for storing evidence, found property, and equipment such as uniforms, life vests, traffic vests, tasers, message boards, and training mats.
• Training sessions are held offsite, because of space constraints. Meanwhile, training requirements are steadily increasing in the law enforcement profession. 
• Dispatchers in the Emergency Communications Center operate in a crowded space where emergency communications have been hindered by poor radio reception and unreliable electrical wiring. Despite numerous retrofits, little more can be done to address the infrastructure deficiencies of Town Hall, which is nearly 100 years-old. 
• The holding cells are substandard and located next to the staff restroom and kitchenette.
• Due to a lack of options, officers’ lockers are located in a hallway. Using a locker blocks everyone from passing.
• Officers share a small patrol room that also serves as a breakroom for meals and is partially occupied by storage.
• The sole conference space has been converted into an office, forcing briefings and larger meetings to occur in the patrol common area.
• There is no available space to accommodate agency partners for brief work periods, nor for day-to-day meetings or emergency operations.

During disasters such as wildland fires and floods, the Town and its partners must locate an available space to manage emergency operations. This creates significant challenges for emergency responders at the start of an incident, when time is critical. Given Estes Park's distance and relative isolation, utilizing a neighboring community's emergency operations facility is not feasible. 

The facility must be immediately accessible, with essential communication equipment and infrastructure already in place or readily available for full functionality.

In the past, the emergency operations center was located in various places, including disconnected conference rooms in Town Hall, the Event Center's exhibition floor or small upstairs meeting rooms, and other agency offices. These spaces were shared with and open to the public for community briefings and evacuee services/shelters, and also co-located with temporary bunk spaces for responding wildland fire teams.

The Department has evolved with the times, but the facility has not.

Compared to the 1970s, today’s Police Department serves a larger and broader population, in a society that demands greater accountability, transparency, and community engagement. Without space to accommodate, the Department’s staffing levels have increased to meet this need and to balance significant population and visitation increases.

• Estes Park’s population was 1,616 in 1970, and 5,904 by 2020.
• Rocky Mountain National Park saw 2,489,300 visitors in 1974, and 4,154,349 in 2024. 

The Department’s responsibilities and community public safety needs have increased significantly. 

• From 2023 to 2024, calls for service increased by 15.5%, from 8101 to 9546. 
• Calls for service in 2025 will likely surpass 2024, with 7008 calls as of July 31, 2025.

The Department was staffed by roughly 20 sworn and civilian professionals in 1970. In 2025, it employs 41 sworn and civilian professionals.

Complete:  The Town Board committed funds to research, assessment, and rights of first refusal to secure a potential property.

Complete:  Conduct a programmatic assessment to develop building concepts and cost estimates for various configurations that can be considered depending on the final location. 

Complete:  Review all Town-owned parcels for potential to serve as the facility location. None of the locations met the needs for size, location and access.

Complete/Underway:  Evaluate other sites throughout the community for suitability. Only a few of these sites met the Town’s criteria and the majority of them had significant obstacles to use. The search for potential locations continues. 

Pending:  Once a location is identified, funding options can be fully evaluated. A new source of funding would be required for purchasing land as well as facility construction. If funding requires a new or increased tax, voter approval would be necessary.

Pending: The Town will need to contract for professional facility design. 

Pending:  The Estes Park Development Code sets regulatory standards for all developments within Estes Park town limits, including public safety facilities. The Code permits Public Safety facilities in all residential and non-residential zoning districts as a “use by right.” Public Safety facilities are subject to a “location and extent review” regardless of the proposed location’s zoning district. Approval by the Planning Commission is required. Regardless of zoning district, the Town will carefully consider the neighboring properties and strive to minimize potential impacts of the development. 

Pending: Construction of the facility