The new home of the UIC Police Department is an edifice rich in history. Small-time crooks and big-time mobsters—including, some say, Scarface Al Capone—once cooled their heels in the "living hell" of its basement cells. It was built in 1889 to serve the Seventh Police District (once described by the Chicago Tribune as "the wickedest in the world") and reopened as UIC police's new headquarters in January 2002.

Some people recognize the station house at 943 West Maxwell Street from its days of television fame. The exterior was featured in the opening shots of "Hill Street Blues," a groundbreaking police drama originally broadcast from 1981 through 1987.

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the building is now a mix of late nineteenth-century atmosphere and modern law enforcement technology. "It's the oldest continuously functioning police station in Chicago," said UIC Police Lt. Michael Cherry.

The new dispatch room is about three times larger than the one located in the old headquarters, which police shared with Facilities Management at 1140 South Morgan Street. The new headquarters also has two holding cells, an improvement over the old facility, where suspects were handcuffed to benches while awaiting transport to jail.

The idea of moving the UIC police to the building first was suggested in 1980 by then-Vice Chancellor for Administration Dick Ward. The $1.5 million renovation began in 1999, after the last Chicago Police Department unit moved from the station house in December 1998.

Deputy Police Chief William Boyer spent about five years working on the relocation and was instrumental in getting the department switched over to the new building.

The State's Attorney's West Side Community Prosecutions Office will share quarters with the UIC Police Department—the first time a community prosecutions office has been housed in a police station.