DAPHNE — After years of planning, the City of Daphne cut the ribbon to its new $6 million justice center annex on Thursday, Feb. 5.

The new justice center is located behind the Daphne Police Department, next to the Jubilee Square shopping center, where the police department's patrol division will now reside in an effort to address growth both within the city and the department as a whole.

"With all the growth over the years and our growth of our police department, our patrol officers have been out of the precinct over by the Home Depot, which has been very small," Daphne Mayor Robin LeJeune said. "We ran out of room here at our justice center, so building this building really brings all of our patrol as a home for training, for classes, for officers to do their paperwork and all those things here."

According to city leaders, the new facility will also have a state-of-the art forensics lab with new technology and additional evidence space along with a secure garage to process vehicles and larger pieces of evidence. For the well-being of their officers, the facility has a gym, a "quiet room" where officers can decompress from work and bathroom facilities with showers.

"This is great for the citizens of Daphne because what it does is it improves the morale of our officers," Mayor LeJeune said. "It gives the officers a place they get to call home that they get to come and really decompress from the day's work, get ready for the next day and be able to serve our citizens better."