Image from National Computer Forensics Institute website
Law enforcement and/or judicial personnel go through training at the National Computer Forensics Institute in Hoover, Alabama.
The Hoover City Council on Monday night agreed to accept a $21.85 million grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to build an addition to the Hoover Public Safety Center for an expansion of the National Computer Forensics Institute.
The institute, run by the U.S. Secret Service and Alabama Office of Prosecution Services, has operated at the Hoover Public Safety Center since 2008, providing advanced training to Secret Service agents, state and local law enforcement officers, judges and prosecutors in digital evidence, forensics and cybercrime investigations.
The facility has been expanded several times already, but now the institute wants to add a 250-seat auditorium, three 35-seat classrooms, 20 administrative offices and conference and common spaces, said Jennifer Cornett, Hoover’s chief financial officer.
The expansion, already authorized by Congress, will allow the institute to more than double its capacity from about 3,500 students a year to more than 8,000 students a year, Cornett said. The long-term goal is to expand to 10,000 students a year, Mayor Frank Brocato said.
The facility, bringing in students for one to five weeks at a time, already has an estimated annual economic impact of $7.5 million, the mayor said. That includes $3 million spent at Hoover hotels, $2 million at Hoover restaurants, $1.2 million for airfare and $963,000 for buses and other transportation, he said.
The institute is responsible for filling 26,000 hotel rooms in Hoover a year, Brocato said.
Photo by Jon Anderson
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The National Computer Forensics Institute is adding a seventh classroom at the Hoover Public Safety Center in Hoover, Alabama.
City officials have been planning for this expansion for years. Originally, they planned to move some other city departments out of the Public Safety Center to an office building the city bought on Lorna Road in 2023 to make room for the institute’s expansion, but now it appears that won’t be necessary, said Jehad Al-Dakka, who recently retired as the city’s chief operations officer but came back to talk to the City Council about the project Monday night.
Finding a good configuration of space for the institute’s expansion proved difficult, and now the new plan is to build an addition on the east side of the building instead, next to Hoover Municipal Court, Al-Dakka said.
That same plan would move the Alabama Department of Revenue’s Jefferson/Shelby County Taxpayer Service Center out of the Public Safety Center to office space the city is leasing at the former Regions office building in Riverchase now known as Riverwalk Village. State officials in Montgomery have not yet approved that plan, but that is the proposal, Brocato said.
If the state approves the relocation of the Jefferson/Shelby County Taxpayer Service Center, Hoover likely will sell the office building it bought at 3021 Lorna Road in 2023, the mayor said. The city paid $1.9 million for that building, but it now is appraising for $3.7 million, he said.
If the state doesn’t approve the relocation of the revenue office, then Hoover likely will move its building inspections and engineering departments to the Lorna Road building, he said.
Blake Miller, the city’s new chief operating officer, said design for the National Computer Forensic Institute addition is about 90% complete. Once a few wrinkles are worked out, the city is eager to move forward with construction, he said. The city has three years to spend the $21.85 million in grant money, but the clock is already ticking, Miller said. The city has until the summer of 2027 to complete the job, he said.
The council also agreed to hire Lemoine Co. to do construction management for the institute expansion.
In other business Monday night, the Hoover City Council:
- Gave approval for Stars Entertainment to open a family entertainment center in The Village on Lorna shopping center in the anchor space currently occupied by Bargain Hunt. A floor plan for the 54,800-square-foot space submitted to the city shows 16 bowling lanes, a trampoline/arcade area, a “gel blaster” room, two large activity/party rooms, five smaller rooms for parties, and a kitchen and food service area.
- Approved plans for a cocktail bar called Sticks and Stones in a 2,000-square-foot space in the Knox Square shopping center across Stadium Trace Parkway from Hoover Metropolitan Stadium
- Approved an agreement for the Hoover police and fire departments to continue having their Hoover Public Safety Night Out event in the J.C. Penney/Belk parking lot at the Riverchase Galleria on March 18.
- Approved an agreement to allow the 2025 World Police and Fire Games to use Veterans Park for cross country and K-9 biathlon competitions and the Hoover Metropolitan Complex for basketball, police motorcycle, ultimate firefighter, firefighter challenge, tennis and soccer events between June 26 and July 6.
- Approved licenses to sell alcoholic beverages for Knox Grocery and Deli at 5886 Elsie Road in the Knox Square sector of Trace Crossings and the Kuyramen and Tbaar restaurant at 950 Inverness Corners
- Reappointed John Baird to the Hoover Personnel Review Board through Feb. 28, 2028
- Expanded the Stadium Trace Village Improvement District board from three members to five members, reappointing Jim Masingill and Will Kadish to the board for terms to end Nov. 15, 2029, and Nov. 15, 2031, respectively, and appointing Zeel Zaveri, Chris Odom and Jerry Sager for terms to end Nov. 15, 2029, 2030 and 2030, respectively.
