Facebook-Funded Menlo Park Police Substation Opens Saturday

A new police substation funded by Facebook opens Saturday in Menlo Park.

The facility is less than a mile from Facebook's headquarters and will mostly deal with low-level offenders.

The social network is offering to put up $200,000 a year for a full-time police officer who would work out of the city's Belle Haven substation.

The Menlo Park police chief describes the substation as untraditional.

The substation will also provide free Wi-Fi to the public, an ATM, and a limited branch of the San Mateo Credit Union.

The public asked officials for many of those amenities at local, neighborhood meetings.

Last summer, city leaders approved a three-year lease for the new substation. Facebook pledged to pay the rent over those three years and offered another $215,000 to overhaul the Belle Haven substation building.

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