The Sandy Springs Police Headquarters and Municipal Court at 620 Morgan Falls Drive is the culmination of a five-year project to create a new facility large enough to house public safety and judicial officials for the next 50 years. (Hayden Sumlin/Appen Media)
The state-of-the-art Sandy Springs Police Headquarters and Municipal Court gives the city and its largest public safety department legitimacy on the North End, according to city officials.
A few hundred people, including high-ranking members of neighboring law enforcement agencies, Sandy Springs officials and department heads, gathered at 620 Morgan Falls Road on April 12 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house to celebrate the city’s new $56 million public safety investment.
Police Sgt. Leon Millholland, public information officer for the department, said bringing the departments into one secure facility helps ensure safety for court employees, police personnel and visitors.
“The biggest change from our old headquarters to our new one is first and foremost the legitimacy, and also the transparency; It’s the citizens’ facility,” Millholland said. “Not being spread out over a business complex allows us to work with our court services and other divisions within the department.”
Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul and Police Chief Kenneth DeSimone cut the ribbon on April 12 at the new, state-of-the-art Sandy Springs Police Headquarters and Municipal Court at 620 Morgan Falls Road. (Hayden Sumlin/Appen Media)
The department is set to officially make the move from the Morgan Falls Office Park, just a block up Ga. 9 at 7840 Roswell Road, to the new state-of-the-art facility on April 21. The four-story, more than 130,000-square-foot police headquarters and municipal court includes the “bones” of the 35-year-old former office building with its internal courtyard, or open-air atrium.
Most of the facility is dedicated to the police department’s 110,000-square-foot command center, not including the 8,500-square-foot sally port.
Spacious courtroom
The courtroom, designed to accommodate more than 100 people and outfitted with state-of-the-art technology, is just over 11,000 square feet. Municipal Court Judge Donald Schaefer told the crowd that the secure holding area makes a huge difference for the safety of staff members and the public.
“We have the ability to expand [into another courtroom] because this city is booming,” Schaefer said. “We could even hold two court sessions at the same time.”
Before cutting the ribbon, Police Chief Kenneth DeSimone said officers have been touring the facility for the last few weeks to get accustomed to their new workspaces and locker rooms.
“This building here will replace four separate buildings that we’re operating in currently,” DeSimone said. “This will help us be much safer and do our job much more efficiently; the technology that’s in this building is absolutely amazing.”
The city and its partners on the project, Jericho Design and Reeves + Young, kicked off the project in August 2020 with the purchase of 7.42 acres for around $11 million.
Sandy Springs says that after around $45 million in construction costs, the project is just over $56 million.
During the open house, the public had access to nearly the entire facility, including the new Sandy Springs Intelligence Operations Center, Judgmental Shooting simulator and some holding cells.
Separating divisions
Each division — Patrol, Special Operations and Criminal Investigation — has its own wing of the building on different floors. There are also meeting spaces for various task forces with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Civilians with different departments like records supervisors, clerks and crime scene investigators have brand new offices designed specifically for their work.
Mayor Rusty Paul said the Sandy Springs Police Department is a leader in metro Atlanta and sports a waiting list with dozens of names at a time when other departments struggle to stay fully staffed.
“This is a significant milestone for the city of Sandy Springs as we are in our 20th anniversary year,” Paul said. “We’re putting a lot of resources on the North End.”
After announcing around $8 million in federal grant disbursements from the Atlanta Regional Commission for the North End Boulevard and PATH 400 projects, Paul said the city is planning to construct a “tactical instruction center” on the hill to the northeast of the complex. The de facto training facility with a simulated shooting range has been in city plans for a few years with sketches showing a potential Fire Station abutting Morgan Falls Road.
The Sandy Springs Police Foundation is currently fundraising to help construct the planned tactical instruction center.
