Utica Police Department Campus

Utica Police Department
413 Oriskany Street, West,
Utica, NY 13502

The stories are mixed, the reporting is mixed. Various development maps showing Utica's police station bulldozed, others show it remaining, but crowded by a large hospital district. Our sister group, #NoHospitalDowntown, had a Utica Police Department page too. BetterUticaDowntown says keep and enhance the police campus, and create A Better Hospital Neighborhood!


January 1, 2017 - Police station opens new $280,000 Crime Analysis Center...


History Note, Year 2007: The Utica Police Station is renamed the "Benny D. Rotunda Public Safety Building".


History Note, Year 2005: The Utica Police Department expanded by adding the department's "Fleet Maintenance Facility"as part of the Gateway Historic Canal District Revitalization Plan". The construction included additiuonal parking with an area for inpounded vehicles. Now located on land just west of police station and once occupied from 1839 to 1896 by; the Utica Foundry, a lumber yard, Hart & Crouse Company, and the Germania Hotel.

July 26, 2005 - News story on Utica's police "Maintenance Facility", "City of Utica Opens New Fleet Maintenance Facility...

2005: New City of Utica Public Safety Campus
Drawing dated: June, 24, 2004


(Between the police station and court house, this new campus has 241 parking spaces; including 4 handicapped spots, at each the police and courts.)

UTICA, NY – The City of Utica Police Department opened its new fleet maintenance facility last month, taking approximately seven months to construct. The building project is part of an overall effort by the city of Utica to improve its “Gateway District,” an area of the western portion of the city that is first seen by people as they enter the downtown area. The fleet maintenance facility is a step in creating a public safety complex that includes the Utica Police Headquarters that was built in 1927 and the Utica City Court Facility that was constructed in 1997. The Utica Police fleet maintenance facility is home to three fleet maintenance technicians who are charged with the upkeep of 94 vehicles of various types that make up the police fleet. All work related to vehicles with the exception of alignments, warranty work, and framework is done in this facility. The new building holds seven service bays, three lifts, a separate bay for washing police vehicles, and a bay for storage of motorcycles, speed trailers and police bicycles. A loft area allows for storage of larger items. There are also two bays segregated from the rest of the facility to process vehicles that are impounded by the department during the course of an investigation. The department also does New York State Inspections for all city fleet vehicles under 18,000 lbs. and is currently awaiting the installation of a downdraft spray booth and paint mixing room for body work. At the grand opening ceremony, a symbolic tow chain was cut with a torch by current Chief of Police C.Allen Pylman and retired Chief Benny D. Rotundo signifying the opening of the new facility. OPERATIONS - Maintenance, Vehicle Research, Equipment, Fuel, Procurement, Green Fleet, Telematics, Software, Safety, Remarketing, Funding, Police


History Note, Year 1997: New Utica City Courts built as free standing building east adjoining police station.


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History Note, Year 1836: Photograph of the Utica Police Station & Courts, 1928


History Note, Year 1836: "Current police station built on Oriskany Street West (bed of Erie Canal filled in 1924) and Pine Street (now W.D. Chapman Drive) to replace Pearl St. station which was demolished in 1934 for city hall employee parking. Site was home of a sash & blind factory and a cordwainer’s (shoemaker) shop according to an 1839 map of Utica. The new building was designed in the Gothic Revival style popular for institutional buildings at the time by architect Charles Kiehm with the Utica firm of Agne, Rushmer & Jennison (ARJ). The original crowning, crenellated parapet wall was simplified sometime in the mid 1900s. The structure included two Utica City court rooms, judges’ chambers, court administrative offices and a prisoner holding area on the second floor. The actual police operations, administration and investigations unit were located on the basement and first floors. R.G. Lloyd Builders were the contractors. It may have been part of an Olmsted Bros. plan for a consolidated government center including a new expansive city hall which was never executed due to the advent of the Great Depression. Other area building by ARJ architects included 1608 Genesee St. (1915) home of the Oneida County History Center, the Uptown Theater (1928) and 33 Oxford Rd., New Hartford (1932) built as the Oxford Rd elementary school. Police force included 70 members including one female officer."Michael J. Lehman, AIA, The Preservationist, Landmarks Society of Greater Utica, Jan/Feb 2018.


History Note, Year 1836: "Utica Police Force established by combining and coordinating the efforts of the day time constables and night watch. This happened eight years prior to New York City, in response to an extremely cold & snowy winter of 1835-1836 and a concurrent cholera epidemic. This combined force patrolled the streets and provided public safety making Utica one of the first police forces in USA."


We're not opposed to a new hospital, just do not bulldoze Downtown Utica's Historic Columbia-Lafayette Neighborhood... "Build It At St. Luke's!"



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