PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — Anyone who needs a police report or a background check in Portsmouth will go to a new address starting this week. The Portsmouth Police Department’s records bureau reopens Thursday, Nov. 12, at 805 Gallia St. on the city’s Esplanade, the department said in a Facebook post reported by the Scioto Valley Guardian.
The bureau is closed Wednesday, Nov. 11, in observance of Veterans Day, and when it reopens Thursday it will operate out of the former Fifth Third Bank building, with records housed in the basement, according to the department’s post as reported by the Scioto Valley Guardian.
Phone numbers for the records bureau will not change despite the move, the department said, according to the Scioto Valley Guardian. Residents and businesses who already have the bureau’s number saved do not need to update it.
The records bureau is the department’s front door for paperwork: it handles public requests for police reports, background checks and other department records for city residents and businesses, the Scioto Valley Guardian reported.
The one-day closure follows the federal holiday schedule. Veterans Day is observed annually on Nov. 11, marking the anniversary of the armistice that ended fighting in World War I in 1918, and honors all U.S. military veterans, living and deceased, the Scioto Valley Guardian noted.
For residents, the practical takeaway is timing: records requests that would normally be handled Wednesday should be planned for Thursday or later, at the new Gallia Street location rather than the bureau’s previous home.
The move puts the bureau on the Esplanade, Portsmouth’s riverfront civic corridor, in a former bank building whose basement will house the department’s records, according to the department.
The information in the announcement was obtained from the Portsmouth Police Department, the Scioto Valley Guardian reported. The bureau reopens Thursday, Nov. 12, at 805 Gallia St.
The relocation also matters for anyone mid-request: the department’s announcement makes clear the bureau’s work continues uninterrupted apart from the holiday closure itself — the same staff, the same phone numbers and the same records services, simply at a different counter starting Thursday. Anyone unsure where to go can call the bureau’s existing number for directions to the Gallia Street entrance.
Photo: Vasiliymeshko, CC BY