There is no doubt that the Lawrence Police Department needs some new facilities. What is less certain, however, is whether the $28 million plan that currently is on the table is the best facility and the best location to serve the city’s long-term needs.

Lawrence voters will be asked on Nov. 4 to approve an additional 0.2 percent local sales tax to pay for a new police station on property just southeast of the West Lawrence interchange on the Kansas Turnpike. The ballot calls for the sales tax to end in nine years– or less if the police station costs are paid off sooner. Sales tax hits disproportionately on low-income residents but it also is paid by visitors to Lawrence and is preferable to added property taxes as a way to fund the facility improvements.

However, although many local residents are willing to invest in new police facilities, they have reservations about the proposal that is on the ballot. Lawrence has a habit of spending money to solve a problem before fully exploring the problem and making sure it has arrived at the best solution. The city has known for some time that the Lawrence Police Department has both facility and staffing needs. The headquarters will solve the facility needs, but does nothing for staffing. During the campaign for the sales tax increase, questions also have been raised about crime rates in the city and how the new facility will help reduce those rates.

Those questions haven’t really been answered. The police say they will benefit by being united in a central location, but the possible benefits to the public of operating from satellite stations were never examined. When it came time to pick locations, city officials looked at a handful of sites and decided the property beside the turnpike was the best. It’s obvious that the location puts the police further away from the courts, the jail and the downtown/central city area where the majority of crimes occur. Police officials are willing to work with that location, but is it the best the city could do?

The cost of the property also is a factor, along with the fact that the city would be taking a prime industrial site off the market. Many suggest this site, adjacent to Interstate 70, is ideal for new business and industry, rather than a police station.

Police Chief Tarik Khatib has said that officials hope this new headquarters building will “house the police department for the next 40 or 50 years,” but it seems the city and police haven’t done the homework necessary to really know whether this facility, in this location, really can be expected to meet the city’s law enforcement needs for the next four or five decades.

Lawrence residents support their police force and many will vote for this sales tax simply as a show of that support. The Lawrence Police Department is worthy of that community support and clearly in need of some new facilities, but police and city officials have not made the case that the plan that is on the table is worthy of voter approval.