New public information site lets residents place a police headquarters anywhere in the city and watch the impact to public safety across every neighborhood.

NEWPORT BEACH, CA, UNITED STATES, August 12, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Newport Beach Police Association today launched SaferNewport.com, an informational website that lets residents see for themselves how the location of a new police headquarters would change emergency response times and patrol coverage across Newport Beach.

The site is built on public records, the Police Headquarters Advisory Committee record and the city's public calls-for-service data. It includes two interactive simulators, side-by-side response-time maps, a history of where Newport Beach has housed its police department, and a myths-and-facts section addressing common claims about the project.

"It's time to put public safety before politics. I believe that we can work together to protect Bunnyhenge, preserve open spaces, and centrally locate our police headquarters next to City Hall,” stated NBPA President, Joe DeJulio. "The NBPA and I remain fully committed to delivering excellent service and public safety no matter where our future headquarters is located. However, location, investment, and timing matter in our officers' ability to respond quickly and keep Newport safe. The wrong location, wrong building, and wrong choice could have devastating consequences that city leadership must consider now."

The first tool, the Headquarters Response Time Simulator, allows a user to select the current Santa Barbara Drive station, a central Civic Center site, or any point inside the city limits, then routes emergency responses along real Newport Beach roads using current time-of-day traffic. The map redraws citywide response times for every neighborhood.

The second tool, the Patrol Shift Simulator, follows a single officer through a full 12-hour watch, including bookings, evidence, required reports, meals and shift change, and shows how much of that shift is spent driving to and from headquarters rather than patrolling.

The NBPA position supports comments NBPD Police Chief Dave Miner recently made where he advised the Police Headquarters Advisory Committee that "it is logistically advantageous to be as centrally located as possible ... in the event that we do need to surge resources."

A central location is not a new idea in Newport Beach. When the city dedicated its City Hall in 1948, the police department and city jail occupied a wing of the building. In 1971, the City Council adopted the Civic Center Revised Master Plan by Resolution No. 7351, which set aside the easterly nine acres of the Newport Center site for the council chambers, the city administration building, the central library and a police facilities building.

The current headquarters at 870 Santa Barbara Drive was built more than five decades ago to serve a population roughly half its current size. Newport Beach police now serve an estimated 7 million residents and visitors a year from that building, which the association has cited for raw sewage backups, a near-miss electrical fire and unreliable information technology systems.

“Remodeling, reconstructing, or reusing the current site is not an option that the NBPA supports,” DeJulio continued. “Police operations are a critical 24/7 system that cannot be simply moved or temporarily relocated without significant costs, delayed response times, and threats to public safety.”
The Newport Beach Police Association supports the City Council's process, and the Police Headquarters Advisory Committee, in reviewing all reasonable, safe and viable options for a headquarters that meets modern operational demands, ensures a centrally located base of operations and respects taxpayer dollars.

The site is available now at www.SaferNewport.com.

Joe DeJulio
Newport Beach Police Association
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