Prince George RCMP began the move from their current detachment to the newly-built detachment on Victoria Street on Tuesday.
RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Craig Douglass said the move is on track to be completed by late Sunday. The detachment's front office will be closed today and will reopen at the new location on Monday.
However calls to 911 and the detachment's main line, 250-561-3300, will still be answered through the weekend.
"Our response to calls for service will be the same. Public safety will be maintained throughout," Douglass said. "Friday the front office will be closed. That's really the only effect on the public."
Douglass asked that anyone needing non-urgent services - such as a police background check - wait until the new detachment fully opens on Monday morning.
Relocating a working police detachment with approximately 200 RCMP and civilian employees is an extremely complex process, Douglass said.
"The process began a couple years ago. A committee was created," he said.
The committee, made up of members from the detachment's RCMP and city employee departments, visited other detachments that had made recent moves to learn from their experiences, he said.
"There is so many things it's almost impossible to think of everything. Every day we've had to deal with surprises," he said. "[But] the big things... were thought of quite a bit, so the things we're encountering are mostly little things. It might be getting keys to people, or making sure everybody has an assigned locker."
Managing the logistics to ensure that officers are still able to work on their active investigations has meant planning the move in stages, Douglass said.
Police evidence, seized property and case files have to be moved and organized very carefully -under tight security -to ensure nothing is lost that could impact an investigation, he said.
"...We deal with more than 30,000 files a year - and some of those files have to be kept for years and years," Douglass said. "I don't know how old our oldest files are, but I'd say 50 years."
In addition to physical files and evidence, the detachment has a powerful and complex computer system that will need to be relocated, he said.
Every piece of furniture and equipment needed to be inventoried, designated a location in the new building and moved, he said. A civilian moving company has been contracted to haul the majority of the less-sensitive items to the new site.
"Some things can't be moved until other things are moved," he said. "[And] there is the prisoner transfer. If anyone is in cells they will have to be moved to the cells in the new detachment."
Once the move is completed sometime on Sunday "the switch will be thrown and the phones will go to the new detachment, and we'll be moved," Douglass said.
