This is the first in a three-part series on the Catasauqua Borough Police Station.

"When I was sworn in 10 years ago, we were looking to upgrade the police facilities," said Catasauqua Police Chief Douglas Kish. "We aren't any closer today and it is frustrating."

Kish was speaking to The Press at the station just after the borough council had voted against purchase of the FL Smidth property two weeks ago. At a more recent meeting, the council reversed that vote (See related article on page 8.) but there is still a long way to go before Kish will find himself in an improved working environment.

With the approval to go ahead with purchase of the FLS property, a plan to adaptively reuse the large plate assembly building on the property as a municipal center that would house police, fire, and borough offices in one facility could remain viable, but that is not certain. A decision to purchase the land does not build a police or fire station or municipal offices.

"It would make a lot of sense administratively for us to be together in one place," said Kish. The latest development comes after years of one proposal after another.

"I'm no architect, but I presented sketches of plans for every site we looked at," said Kish. He listed multiple sites: Lincoln School, Clim-A-Temp, American Legion property and the FLS plate shop. Of the proposals advanced in the past, Kish liked the Lincoln School proposal the best.

"It would be great for the police and the borough offices, but we didn't have anything for the fire department," he said.

Forty years ago, the present police facility opened to praise as one of the best borough stations in the Lehigh Valley.

"It was a huge step up from the two rooms and a toilet that we had," said Kish.

A lot has changed in 40 years.

"Today we use more technology and it comes at us rapidly," he said.

Handicapped access is poor, the best one can do is to go to the back entrance, ring the buzzer and hope someone comes to the door.

Parking is limited to a few spaces along the alley. The parking is only for police vehicles.

Inside the station, lobby space is at a premium.

"We have no way to secure our computer servers or to have a stable power source," he said. "In the locker room, if someone turns on the microwave with the air conditioner running, we lose power to half the station." There is no power backup system.

Officers have high-school sized lockers.

"They need to keep sets of uniforms in there, rain gear, vests, and the stuff they carry. There just isn't enough space," said Kish. "We have eight full-time officers and 10 part-time officers. The full time officers have a shared desk and a drawer in the filing cabinet for their administrative paperwork."

There is no training room. For that, officers use the adjacent borough council chambers.

"If we need to take a report from a citizen, we need to escort them through the whole station to get to a room. And the cramped space in an interrogation room is intimidating for someone working to give us helpful information," he said. The 5-foot-by-5-foot conference room has no air-conditioning or heating and only a one-way viewing glass.

There are two cells.

"We don't need any more than two, but right now, we use the second cell to store police bikes," Kish said. "If we get two people in lockup, we need to move the bicycles out of there."

The lights in the cells work sporadically.

"We are constantly replacing the bulbs and they still only work for a short while."

The department cannot make major changes to the building because the police do not own it.

"If we need to get something done, we need to have the housing authority, the building's owner, make the changes.

Kish said the Catasauqua police force cannot be accredited with the building they have.

"We are working to get all the procedures in place so that we can meet the standards, but we aren't going to be able to go after accreditation until we have a place where we can be organized," he said.

With an accredited police department in the borough, homeowners could see reduced liability insurance rates.

"Most of the people cooperate with us and neighborhoods keep the crime rate down, but if there were a train derailment, we could not handle it," said Kish.

As it is, when a drug enforcement team swoops into town, the department has a tough time coordinating all the activity.

"It's not that our officers are not capable of handling problems, we just don't have anywhere to put offenders and keep our priorities organized," Kish said. "It is difficult for us to cooperate with other agencies working out of this location."

Kish's message to the borough mayor, council members and administration: conditions are desperate and can no longer be punted away.

Editor's note: Next week, Kish's wish list for a new police station.