When Boca Raton’s current police station was constructed in 1987, replacing a smaller building from 1965, the city’s population was a mere 58,000 residents and required a workforce of 145 employees to protect them. Fast forward to 2025, and the same building is “bursting at the seams,” officials said, with the population having more than doubled along with the department’s manpower, at 331 employees including sworn officers and civilians.
For the better part of the last two decades, officials have debated the location and design of a new police headquarters. In the interim, members of the department have had to branch out to locations around the city to carry out their duties, with many functions remaining in the 1987 building at 100 NW Boca Raton Boulevard, and many having been transferred to the “6500 building” on Congress Avenue. The center of the city’s population has also shifted more toward the north and west as development expanded and the city annexed new parcels to form its modern shape. Officials now say they have a solid plan in place to build a new headquarters facility on Spanish River Boulevard, adjacent to the Spanish River Library, and that design and permitting could begin as early as next year.
The proposed location of a new police headquarters building in Boca Raton, FL, May 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
The proposed location of a new police headquarters building in Boca Raton, FL, May 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)…