In October 2025, construction began for Lake Forest’s new police headquarters at 1925 Field Court. The city purchased the property in September of 2024 for $3.5 million dollars, while the total cost is expected to be $25 million dollars.
“The old [training] space has room for 15 people, and it’s one room, so it really limits what we can do,” said Mike Lange, Deputy Chief of Operations.
The police department, for a while, has been sending officers to locations outside of Lake Forest to receive training due to the fact they could not train large numbers of officers at the current station.
The design highlights of the new headquarters include a sally port, firing range, lobby and records counter, and a multipurpose room.
The new sally port will be able to accommodate all sized vehicles, making the transportation of suspects much more efficient and safer for officers. To mitigate the limited training the department is able to currently offer, they are installing the firing range and a multipurpose room which will give them the opportunity to train up to 120 officers. The current firing range is only 20 meters long, which limits the types of weapons that can be used during training. The new training facility will also benefit those who are interested in the Citizens Police Academy due to its larger size and up-to-date resources.
While patrol officers make up a large portion of the department, with 30 officers, they currently share the same desk which they use to file reports for the department’s records. The new lobby and records area will provide these officers with workspaces and offices, allowing them to have private conversations with victims and witnesses, making the process of collecting evidence much more efficient for officers and citizens.
At the current police headquarters, evidence must be collected and taken to the basement to be processed and stored. The room where evidence is currently stored has no ventilation, which in the long run can cause a buildup of moisture, leading to the degradation of biological evidence. A modern processing facility will be added to the new headquarters to ensure the preservation of evidence and provide a safer environment for officers to store it in.
When multi-million dollar city projects are approved, many homeowners wonder how these projects will affect their property taxes. To avoid an immediate substantial increase, the City of Lake Forest began phasing in this impact in 2024 with a Property Tax Levy.
This creates a gradual increase in property taxes to avoid panic among residents. “For the average Lake Forest homeowner with a $1 million home value, the property tax impact from the police facility bond issuance is estimated at $183.08 annually, phased in over three years,” as cited by the City. The City implemented this increase in 2024 which added a $55.05 increase in property taxes, followed by the 2025 increase of $62.70, and the final increase being this year, at $65.33.
This relocation also benefits the fire department of Lake Forest as they will now have access to the entire Public Safety Building once the police department moves out. The fire department will likely use these empty spaces to expand their operations by adding larger meeting spaces and remodeling it to accommodate their needs.
Since the new headquarters will be in west Lake Forest, some students may wonder if the response times of officers will take longer. However, the department has made it clear that the response times of officers will not be affected because they are always patrolling all areas of Lake Forest.
The grand opening of the highly awaited police headquarters is set to occur this fall. For future updates and additional information regarding the police headquarters check the City of Lake Forest’s website.
