A new 8.7 million dollar, state of the art Lacombe Police Station was on display yesterday as all the partners involved celebrated with an official grand opening.

Lacombe Mayor Steve Christie says it's a muncipalities responsibility to ensure the police force has the proper tools to do the best job they can to serve the community and he's proud to see Lacombe Police be the first municipal police service in the province with a new radio system "which is kind of fun because I was able to be in the early stages of consulting when they were talking about this system in my role with AUMA, so it's kind of neat to see that we are the first municipality to be on that system, so it's a huge feather in our cap".

The Alberta First Responders Radio System provides improved communication and coverage for members as well as the ability to enhance communications with partner emergency and disaster managment agencies throughout the region and province wide if necessary.

Acting Police Chief Lorne Blumhagen says the new 16,000 sqare foot facility has also allowed them to bring back local dispatch which is already proving its merit "since we implemented our own dispatch on November 15th we have got feedback that our response times have been better overall, that our times have been reduced and positive responses from the community on that".

Alberta Minister of Justice and Solicitor General Kathleen Ganley was also on hand for the ribbon cutting yesterday and she commended the City for making the project a priority "I think it's important for police to have the necessary tools available to them all the time and a big kudos to the City to be able to this.  I know it can be very challenging for any level of government to be able to plan infrastructure builds because it tends to be quite expensive, but its important to be able to replace these facilities because policing has certainly changed a lot and as populations increase throughout the province it's important to have the necessary infrastructure to support that".