Boise Police Department opens downtown station

By TOMMY SIMMONS, Idaho Press, December 10, 2020

Photo:  Boise Police Department Facebook Page, December 4, 2020

BOISE — The Boise Police Department on Wednesday announced the opening of its new substation in west downtown.

The station will serve as a place for Boise officers to work downtown at 2223 W. Fairview Ave. In particular, it will serve as a more permanent home for the department’s bike unit, which for years has been based out of temporary locations, according to a news release from the Boise Police Department. Renovations on the building started earlier this year, and the bike patrol officers will move into the facility this week.

The current Boise Police Department headquarters are located in City Hall West in the 300 block of North Mark Stall Place, in central Boise. The new substation is roughly 5 miles to the east.

“It’s really one of the first steps in our larger community policing strategy to get our facilities out and connected to the communities that we serve, so that we’re more accessible,” Police Chief Ryan Lee said. “While we’re grateful for the facility that City Hall West represents, it is … pushed out to one edge of the city. And this helps us get a footprint at least here in this downtown core where officers will work daily out of.”

The announcement of the substation’s location caused a stir when city officials revealed it in October 2018. The property had previously housed the Lucky Dog Tavern, one of Boise’s only two gay bars.

“We don’t take this purchase and the long-term change lightly because gathering places for those who feel marginalized are so incredibly important,” then-City Council President Lauren McLean said in the fall of 2018, when the city purchased the property for $1.15 million. announcement emails

Lee said although the pandemic torpedoed hopes of an in-person grand opening, small groups of city council members have toured the building.

At the time the city purchased the property, then-Boise Police Chief Bill Bones told the Idaho Press department officials had talked abstractly about the possibility of a station in east downtown, but those plans never materialized. Lee made no mention of another downtown substation Wednesday.

“We’re incredibly happy to have this,” he said.

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