Plans for new police station in progress

After the police station failed a state inspection for the tenth year in a row, the Public Safety Facilities Working Group (PSFWG) is working on a project plan for the renovation of a building at 135 King St. into a new public safety building housing the police department. The PSFWG was appointed in October 2025 after the Select Board removed the article from the Fall 2025 Special Town Meeting warrant. The vote was postponed until spring after the estimated cost of Phase 1 increased from $10.4 million to nearly $27.5 million.

The Select Board voted to make PSFWG a fully charged committee in a meeting January 20, which means the group will have to post their meetings and follow its charging mission as decided by the Select Board. That mission includes presenting the project plan to the Select Board no later than the 2026 special town meeting, “evaluating all viable options” to improve the current building on Elm Street, and considering community voices in their recommendations.

The project plan will include a cost estimate and funding options. Cohasset purchased the commercial office building at 135 King St. in 2024.

According to PSFWG, the police station can “no longer meet modern standards,” which makes it difficult to attract and retain highly qualified officers. 

The station, which was built in 1962, has no sprinkler system and is not fully ADA compliant. It lacks specialized areas to analyze digital and biological evidence and has insufficient space to store evidence, said PSFWG. A presentation at a community feedback forum for PSFWG showed a picture of an officer processing evidence at a lunch table.

“The challenge before us is how we balance fiscal responsibility with the need to invest wisely today to protect our town for future generations,” PSFWG wrote in the presentation.

The PSFWG said the primary reason the station failed inspection was its noncompliance with state requirements for suicide deterrent fixtures, which are critical because the police station sometimes holds individuals in protective custody for acute mental health or substance abuse issues.

The committee also said the station’s reception area, garage, and armory storage were too small, and there is no large meeting space for trainings or press conferences.

Police Chief William Quigley said that the state is “becoming inpatient” with Cohasset’s progress on the new station.

“They were just in it last month and expressed their displeasure,” he said.

Cohasset purchased the lot at 135 King St. for the new station after conducting studies that recommended a location on Route 3A to minimize emergency call response time. PSFWG said that nearly 60% of calls are along Route 3A. 

The location is “strategically positioned, cost-effective compared to new construction, and the only commercial property in town large enough to support such a facility,” Quigley wrote in an opinion piece for the South Shore Times in July 2025.

A larger station will also be able to accommodate the Emergency Operations Center, which is a “central command and control structure to manage emergency response, preparedness and disaster management” that is currently located in the basement of Deer Hill Elementary School. Moving the EOC to the police station would improve communication between the two organizations, said PSFWG.

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