Portales Police Relocated to City Property

The police station has been located in a county-owned building on Boston Avenue but began the process of relocating into the former magistrate court facility, a city-owned property on US 70 in Portales.

Portales Chief of Police Pat Gallegos said he acquired the building by working with Sammy Standefer, Portales city manager.

“We knew we needed a new building, so at that time, we just started looking at buildings, and finally, we were able to purchase this one,” said Gallegos.

The former court facility was remodeled after the police department purchased it.

Gallegos said the department ran into issues with space in their former building; their new building offers more working space for staff and storage space for files and evidence. Furthermore, the city of Portales owns the new building, so the PPD has more freedom with the building’s use.

“If we need repairs, we can take care of it right away instead of having to go through somebody else,” he said, describing their experience with the former building as “tenants” renting property from the county.

“It was kind of getting crowded over there,” said Gallegos. The (new) magistrate court shared the former property with the police station, so space was becoming an increasingly large issue.” He said sharing the property posed issues with parking, especially during jury selection.

“With our own space now, we have a big parking lot to ourselves. We can put all of our equipment together,” he said.

The former property also shared space with the Roosevelt County Detention Center. Gallegos believes the Roosevelt County Sheriff’s Office on Airport Road is planning to move into the property on Boston Avenue.

The new PPD building offers a larger room for evidence storage, a conference room (also doubling as a training space), more and larger offices, and more lobbies.

Gallegos said he planned to be done moving into the new building by Feb. 15.