Inside the historic Phoenix Police Department headquarters ahead of move to new building

PHOENIX - The Phoenix Police Department headquarters is in a new building. The department now has a bigger and better space to do crime-fighting work in the modern world.

What we know:

The change means leaving behind the old headquarters at the corner of 7th Avenue and Washington Street. The location serves as the site where high-profile police officers and criminals came together over the past five decades.  

This building dates back to the mid-1970s. It was built like a fortress, constructed for both safety and the architectural style of the times. Now 50 years later, the department has outgrown the building. 

The Old Building:

Stepping into the old Phoenix police headquarters is like stepping back in time. Sgt. Vincent Cole serves as a tour guide who remembers his first day at the facility.

"This is where I came to bring my application," Cole said. "I made some of the best friends of my life in this building."

But now, almost all the officers are gone. Much of the equipment has been cleared out as well. The hallways and rooms are mostly empty, and the wallpaper is beginning to peel.

"It’s bare and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it this quiet or this empty," Cole said. "It’s kind of creepy."

Big picture view:

For five decades, this brutalist architectural building was the center of crime and punishment. The operations spanned from the chief’s office on the fourth floor to ballistics testing in the basement, along with crime labs and interrogation rooms where many infamous cases were solved.

"The baseline killer investigations, the serial shooter investigations those interrogations and things were conducted here," Cole said.

Why They're Moving:

One big reason for the move is to establish more space for new technology, such as officer body cameras. The outdated room used to house 911 operators. Additionally, their old lounge looks right at home in the 1970s, complete with burnt orange and avocado green chairs and an old-school intercom clinging to the wall.

"There’s been a substantial evolution of technology and along with outcome greater electrical needs, and and so that was part of what kind of prompted us to look for a bigger building that we could grow into," Cole said.

But time marches on, and now the old building is just days away from being left behind. And with it, generations of crime-fighting memories are left behind, which are shown in old photographs located in the executive conference room. The historical visual items include a publicity shot of Frank Sinatra.

Dig deeper:

The transition also means just maybe leaving behind a ghost story or two.

"That’s the rumor," Cole said. "The rumor is the building's haunted, and it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly by who, but because the buildings been this land has been occupied for so long that there’s been a lot of different things that have invariably occurred on this property."

The New Building:

The new Phoenix police headquarters is moving just a few blocks down to the old Chase Bank building at 100 W. Washington Street. 

What's next:

As for the old building, once everything and everyone is out, it will be decommissioned and then go up for sale— and who knows what will happen to it after.

Map of the new headquarters location for Phoenix PD. 

Downtown PhoenixNews