Carmel’s police station is falling apart.

I will date myself, Pam Marino, by saying as a kid I loved the TV show Adam-12, which ran from 1968-1975. It was basically Dragnet for patrol officers—Jack Webb created both series. 

Adam-12 definitely leapt to mind the first time I toured the Carmel Police Station for a story in 2018. The station was built around the same time the show first aired, and even today it retains a feel of a 1960s police station. 

I revisited the station on Friday, March 29, with a group of 10 Carmel residents, Mayor Dave Potter, Councilmember Jeff Baron and the city consultant Fred Meurer. The tour was led by Chief Paul Tomasi, with help from Public Works Director Bob Harary. We were gathered inside the small lobby as we waited for the tour to begin.

It was the first of three tours that morning—residents were spread out over the three groups due to the station’s constrained size. The goal was to show Carmelites why the city is in desperate need of a new station. Potter and Baron, the Carmel City Council’s police station committee, in January suggested the city spend $20 million on the project, and they’ve received considerable pushback for it.

“This is our interview room,” Tomasi said in the lobby as he officially launched the tour. “We’re running out of space.” Crime victims are interviewed there and minors waiting to be picked up by parents also are kept in the public lobby. There just isn’t any other place for them.

Next came the hollow metal dutch door that leads to the interior of the station, not the most secure entrance. In the hallway to the right was a locked door leading to a former interview room, now the property room, measuring 20-by-20 feet. It lacks ventilation and an updated door lock system.

That was just the first several minutes. Tomasi led us through a maze of hallways, offices and stairwells for the next hour, pointing out where a leaking rooftop contributed to mini electrical fires discovered later and numerous other issues ranging from annoying to downright serious. Harary kept pointing out how there is zero American with Disabilities Act access, including no elevator. 

A few hours later I drove to Salinas, where our numbers dwindled to just five residents for a tour of the four-year-old Salinas Police Department, which once occupied a building next to Salinas City Hall, 10 years older than Carmel’s station. It was replaced with a $56 million new center on East Alisal Street in 2020.

Besides still feeling shiny and new, the Salinas station has every updated security feature a department could need. We were shown modern door locking systems, two interview rooms equipped with cameras, holding cells where suspects are temporarily secured before heading to Monterey County Jail. An entire building behind the station is used to store evidence.

There is intense political pressure in Carmel against a new station and some have said there’s not that much crime in the village, so why spend the money? This, despite the current average home price in Carmel is $2.1 million with many zooming into double digit values.

If I were a Carmel Police officer, I might take umbrage at that question. Beyond just an outdated facility, the station is downright dangerous, regardless of how small or large the crime stats are. Should any employee be forced to work someplace that’s unsafe? 

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