Los Banos Police unveils new headquarters, swearing in new chief

LOS BANOS, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Los Banos Police Department hosted a grand opening for its new headquarters on Friday.

The ribbon was cut for the long-awaited building on G Street near Mercey Springs Road with locals eagerly pouring inside for a tour.

"We've needed it for a really long time. This is a really great day," said Tony Whitehurst, a Los Banos resident.

The entire department will go from working out of three separate buildings downtown and several different storage units to one consolidated site.

The move is expected to improve efficiency when it comes to serving the community.

It will take some adjusting before the staff can fully move in by the end of the month.

That's top of mind for new Chief Ray Reyna who was sworn in just hours after the building was opened.

"Unfortunately, there are some things that are out of our control. Some IT things and some 911 systems that are controlled by the state," said Reyna.

His other priorities are addressing the gang violence and thefts that have increased as Los Banos has seen its population grow.

Reyna is a second-generation officer in Los Banos. His father started working for the department in the early '70s.

"I used to watch my dad get ready for work and I remember he would tell me stories and I remember thinking that's what I wanted to do. And then when I was probably about 14 years old, 13 or 14, he allowed me to go on my first ride along and that was it," explained Reyna.

Just two years later at 16, Reyna joined the department as a police explorer, and by 1999 he was working full time as a community service officer at the jail.

Although Reyna gets the honor of leading the department in its new home, he credits the newly retired former chief, Gary Brizze, with getting the building off the ground.

The $27 million project has been in the works since 2018 and was funded by the 2004 Measure P half-cent sales tax.

On his last day as Chief and after 28 years in law enforcement Brizze gets to see this major goal come to fruition.

"Today represents a decades-long dream of bringing a new facility for our family, the police department. It's rare that a police chief in their tenure gets the opportunity to build a new facility," said Brizze.

Brizze says he's thrilled to pass the torch along to Chief Reyna.

He says the two have worked side by side for 13 years and it's been a pleasure to watch Reyna grow in his career.

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