Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, Forensics & Technology Facility
Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, Forensics & Technology Facility
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Palm Beach County, FL
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Palm Beach County
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132,000 SF; 600-car impound lot
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Architecture
Interior Design
The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office Forensic and Technology Facility consolidates the Property & Evidence (P&E) and Forensic Sciences divisions into a single, purpose-built facility. Originally designed as a one-story P&E and impound facility, the project expanded near the completion of design when additional funding became available, allowing the Forensics Division to be incorporated as a second story while leveraging the operational efficiencies of a shared facility.
The greenfield site and building are planned around lean workflow principles, with spaces organized to optimize the movement of people, evidence, and materials while aligning key adjacencies and support functions. P&E operations include officer intake and packaging areas, secure evidence processing and storage, bulk central storage, and dedicated vaults for currency, jewelry, firearms, narcotics, and flammable materials. Secure sally ports and destruction areas further support evidence handling. Separate secured entrances for property pickup and legal and evidence viewing help eliminate cross-traffic, visible vulnerabilities, and potential security conflicts.
The facility also provides dedicated office, laboratory, and garage space for the Crime Scene Investigation Unit, maintaining separation between clean and dirty functions to support staff safety and evidence integrity. Specialized spaces include laboratories for latent prints, photography, alternative light source, and open processing, along with multiple vehicle evidence processing labs, equipment storage, and areas supporting evidence vehicle dispatch.
The Forensics Division occupies the second floor, providing specialized laboratories for chemistry, toxicology, data, fingerprints, and firearms and ballistics. The design supports efficient movement through the laboratories while applying lean planning principles to central storage, support functions, and dedicated secure ancillary spaces. A ballistics water tank and single-lane firing range complement the laboratory program, along with dedicated training rooms, QA/QC offices, administrative areas, break rooms, and conference spaces.
The project also includes new surface and structured impound facilities accommodating more than 600 vehicles, including forfeited, investigative, homicide, and evidence-processing vehicles. The impound area carefully manages security separations, vehicle movement, property storage, and controlled inflow and outflow. Exterior processing areas and a vehicle reenactment area provide additional operational capabilities. Supporting spaces throughout the facility include conference and break rooms, restrooms, central storage, and dedicated mechanical, electrical, telecommunications, and security equipment rooms.
