Behind the Badge
The Tustin Police Department is expanding its footprint on the southern edge of the city with a new office that will focus on community relations, such as event planning, homeless services and school outreach.
So far, four personnel headed by Sgt. Sarah Fetterling of the Community Resources Unit, are in the annex at 15445 Lansdowne Road, near Red Hill and Valencia avenues. Her team is composed of Officer Jasmine DeLeon, homeless liaison and an eight-year department veteran; and Jen Dlugitch and Zhanna Ismailova, community relations police service officers (PSO) who have been with the Tustin Police Department for a year and two and a half years, respectively.
The new Tustin Police Department annex will allow easier access to the PD for residents who live in that area of the city. Courtesy of the Tustin Police Department
Near the new office is a police training room with space for arrest and control tactics (ACT), a force simulator and a flex area that will be used as a classroom or storage. City parks and recreation staff are also in an annex nearby, which will allow them to collaborate more easily with police staff.
Fetterling’s team had been on the second floor of the Tustin Police Department’s Centennial Way headquarters. Now, on Lansdowne, they enjoy exclusive space where they can keep all their records together and organized.
The front desk area at the Tustin Police Department’s new annex office at Tustin Legacy. Courtesy of the Tustin Police Department
For DeLeon, the office is of particular benefit. She lacked her own dedicated space before, having to rely on whatever was available.
“It’s a really nice space so we’re not so crowded,” DeLeon said. She also noted how the office is closer to a homeless shelter and park where she works on outreach services.
Dlugitch and Ismailova are also liking the new digs. They can easily interact face to face.
“Before, for us to collaborate, sometimes we would get in the way of other people,” Dlugitch said of their previous conditions at the Centennial Way headquarters. “Now, we’re right next to each other. The workspace has just increased, and I think that will really help us later on down the line.”
A conference room at the new annex space for the Tustin Police Department. Courtesy of the Tustin Police Department
Ismailova echoed the sentiment.
“It’s nice to be in a new space,” she said. “We’re all looking at it as a positive change.”
The team is still unpacking, and in that process they’re rediscovering old resources that will help them in their jobs.
The Lansdowne office could eventually become an official police substation with a public front desk. This would allow the community to interact with police more easily than going downtown. Visitors to the substation could handle things like filing police reports, picking up parking permits and getting tickets signed off for corrections.
“The opportunities are endless coming up,” Fetterling said. “It’s definitely good and the future is looking bright.”
A rock garden decorates the outside of the Tustin Police Department annex office. Courtesy of the Tustin Police Department
A sergeant’s office at the annex space of the Tustin Police Department. Courtesy of the Tustin Police Department
Courtesy of the Tustin Police Department
