Turns Out, People DO Remember Old Benton City PD–And More!

Thanks to some alert area residents, we have a little more background on the old Benton City Police Department.

We told you earlier this week about the decades-long forgotten evidence locker or safe from the BCPD that was recently located. Inside were a number of gold-plated ceremonial religious artifacts that were stolen from the St. Francis Xavier Cabrini Church. The thefts reportedly took place either in the very late 70's or very early 80's. Many of the stolen items were recovered, but then locked away and forgotten for over 3 decades until now. Why they were never returned to the church is still unknown but there were apparently a lot of them.

  WHERE WAS THE OLD BENTON CITY PD LOCATED?

Thanks to our friend Shawn, an avid listener to our station and online follower, the Police station was in the back of the old Benton City Hall, located at 708th 9th street. He said to get to the station, you had to down the hallway to the back and then downstairs.

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The back of the building was open where they could walk out and get to the patrol car(s) that were parked there. According to his memory (and some others), he is pretty sure Benton County Sheriff's took over the contract for providing Law Enforcement at least by 1987, BCSO said it was early 1980's

Another listener, Gaylord, provided this nugget of knowledge via email:

"I remember Jess Pruitt who was the only officer there in the 60’s.."

Back then, Benton City probably didn't require a lot of officers as the population according to historylink.org was just over 1,000. Today, it's well over 3K.

The building now serves as a branch of the Mid-Columbia Library System.

And with that in mind, what doesn't exist anymore, check out these.