Downtown Dayton now has a new police substation.
Dayton Police Department and city leaders opened the station at 30 S. Main St. on Monday morning.
City Manager Shelley Dickstein said a police presence downtown was a necessity.
"There had not been a downtown police station since 2012," she said at an opening ceremony Monday morning. "And since 2014 we have added thousands of residents, hundreds of millions of investment. And not having a police presence in downtown helping to patrol, keep people safe, prevent crime, act on crime was really important, a real priority."
Dickstein says a new permanent police station at Fourth and St. Clair streets won’t be ready until 2028 or 2029, so the city leased the space for this substation from RTA.
It overlooks the RTA hub.
Dayton Police Major Brian Johns said getting the sub-station renovations underway took a lot of communication between Dayton PD, RTA, and the city.
"We are in the heart of downtown Dayton," he said. "The Arcade is right across the street. The RTA Hub is right next door to us and pretty much courthouse square is caddy corner. So we couldn’t be more happy with this location."
Officials said downtown will be safer with the 30-plus police officers assigned to the sub-station, including one officer providing mental health and homelessness outreach.
