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THERMAL - Changes are underway for the Riverside County Sheriff's Department here in the Coachella Valley.
KMIR6's Angela Monroe got the first TV tour of the new sheriff's station in Thermal since it opened.
Captain Raymond Gregory opens the doors to the new station they just finished moving into.
Now he has a new title and job, Gregory has been appointed to chief deputy sheriff in Riverside County.
He guided us through the 99,000 square foot station.
One unique feature is the forensics bureau.
"It serves all of the Eastern Riverside County, and so we are very happy to have them as our sister operation," said Chief Deputy Gregory.
They also have the only hangar at a sheriff's station in Riverside County, but its not fully staffed yet.
"There isn't the funding to staff that location and so for now this will just be a satellite location and part of the aviation hangar will be leased for a time to Mercy Air," said Gregory.
In the station tour we saw the evidence warehouse,  training room, community meeting room, holding bays, weight rooms, and even a kid friendly room for holding interviews.
Eastern Coachella Valley is expected to continue to grow, and now the sheriff's station has room to grow.
"Part of this project was the land, which was generously donated by the Berger Foundation, and the idea being that with the sheriff's station here, it would not just serve the local communities but would serve to attract more business and development in this area," said Gregory.
Multiple stations including La Quinta Police Department are now under one roof. 
Before they had been splintered in seperate stations because of lack of space.
"It really cut down on the communication between the different teams, between the different deputies, and it just was not an efficient way to run our operation."
Chief Deputy Gregory says residents will see the difference.
"We're able to service Coachella very well, and especially southern La Quinta, so we think that these communities are going to see that we're going to have an increased prescense for them and be able to do even a better job for them," said Gregory.