New Yuma Police Department $6 million building

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - The Yuma City Council approved a new building for the Yuma Police Department to store evidence.

YPD is required to store homicide evidence for over 90 years, which takes up a lot of their current storage.

"It has to be in a good secure location, and then we can bring it out when we need it, but it helps those items last longer," said Yuma Police Department Public Affairs Sergeant Lori Franklin.

YPD explains why the new building is needed.

"The city has been expanding we have to expand with it so this storage facility is going to allow us to grow even bigger but allow us to put everything in one location," said Sgt. Franklin.

It will cost just over $6 million, with $2.5 million coming from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, via grant.

The rest will come from the city's public safety tax and impact fee.

Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls shares why it's important to help the Yuma Police Department.

"In supporting this project, we're supporting our men- and women-in-blue that the work that they do in the street is actually going to amount to justice as well as you know the citizens that expect the due process," said Mayor Nicholls.

The building will be almost 70,000 square feet and the police department says the expansion is long overdue.