Melbourne Police Department

Melbourne police take emergencies on 911 and everything else on the non-emergency line, 321-608-6731.

The department's contact page draws the line by urgency. Calls go to 911 when a situation demands immediate action, such as a serious illness or injury or a fire. The non-emergency number handles complaints that can wait: noisy parties, parking problems, abandoned or stripped vehicles, youth playing ball in the streets, and fireworks, hotrods or minibikes (Contact Melbourne Police). The direct-dial list gives the same 321-608-6731 number for the Communication Center and for Melbourne Patrol (MPD direct dial list).

Questions about a specific action the department took, how it operates, or suggestions for its services also go to 321-608-6731, and written comments can be mailed to the Melbourne Police Department at 250 W. NASA Boulevard, Melbourne, Florida 32901, or emailed to [email protected] (About the Melbourne Police Department). The department describes its mission as serving all people in its jurisdiction with respect, fairness and compassion while maintaining a visible presence, and its main page says personnel work closely with business partners, neighborhood watch groups and community leaders (Melbourne Police Department).

Melbourne police publish direct lines for each office, so a records request or a recruiting question does not need to go through dispatch.

Downtown Melbourne has its own officer line, 321-863-1371, separate from the citywide Patrol number, and the department lists its Public Information Officer at 321-615-6649 (Contact Melbourne Police). The list marks Patrol as the same number as the Communications Center.

Melbourne police headquarters is the Joseph Pellicano Law Enforcement Center at 250 West NASA Boulevard, a 75,000 square foot, two-story building that put every police service under one roof.

The city says Melbourne voters approved financing the building with general obligation bonds on November 6, 2018, replacing two outdated, deteriorated buildings (Joseph Pellicano Law Enforcement Center page). The city's FY2025 annual financial report notes that from December 2024 through February 2025 Police Department staff moved into the new center, and its asset count drops from two police stations to one in 2025 (Melbourne FY2025 ACFR, Schedule 19). The same report lists $40,824,334 for the center among the year's major capital asset events, and the 2025 Year in Review dates the move to February 2025 (Melbourne 2025 Year in Review).

The building is also Melbourne's hardened public safety hub. It has been hardened to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, and it houses the city's Emergency Operations Center and 911-Communications Center, backed by a generator with a 10,000-gallon fuel tank that can run the facility for two weeks, a backup water system and a backup sanitary sewer system (Melbourne Law Enforcement Center page). For the public, the lobby has private interview rooms, and a multipurpose community room is set aside for residents and officers to work together on neighborhood initiatives. Behind the scenes there are training rooms with a defensive tactics room and gym, two bunk rooms for night-shift officers due in court the next morning, covered space for specialty vehicles such as the SWAT vehicle and Crisis Negotiations Van, new K9 kennels and space for future outdoor training and a possible K9 obstacle course.

The Melbourne City Council named the building for the only member of the department to die in the line of duty, a patrol officer struck by a vehicle on October 17, 1986, while directing traffic at a house fire on Sarno Road (Melbourne Law Enforcement Center page).

Melbourne's FY2025 financial report counts 256 full-time equivalent police employees for 2025.

The FY2025 annual financial report's staffing schedule lists Police at 256 full-time equivalents in 2025, 251 in 2024, 250 in 2023 and 239 in 2016, and the Fire Department at 189 in 2025 (Melbourne FY2025 ACFR, Schedule 17). The capital asset schedule counts 139 patrol vehicles in 2025, after 144 in 2024 (Melbourne FY2025 ACFR, Schedule 19).

Beyond patrol and dispatch, the department's own page links a Records Division, a Property and Evidence unit, Stress Management and Crisis Intervention Programs, a Biased Policing policy page, MPD News, Law Enforcement Trust Fund support for National Night Out, and a vacation house check program for residents leaving town (Melbourne Police Department). Training moved in house with the new building: the 2025 Year in Review reports that Melbourne began training new officers on a virtual reality system that runs real-world scenarios for practicing de-escalation, and says the city planned to expand it in 2026 to annual training scenarios for all officers (Melbourne 2025 Year in Review). The same report describes an August meeting of the Melbourne Police Community Relations Council at which community leaders honored the Melbourne, Palm Bay and West Melbourne police departments.

Melbourne police records go through the Records Division, by its online request service, by phone at 321-608-6590 or by fax at 321-608-6599.

The Records Division page also links a sworn statement form for crash reports (Melbourne Police Records Division); the window hours and the copy charges for police records are set out in the Melbourne City Clerk and public records guide.

Crash reports carry a waiting period, and the city page and state law start it on different days. The Records Division page says accident reports are exempt from disclosure for 60 days counted from the date of the accident, and that during that time they may be released to the people involved, their legal representatives and their insurance companies with a written sworn statement (Melbourne Police Records Division). Florida Statutes 316.066 counts its 60 days from the date the report is filed and names a wider list of recipients, including licensed insurance agents, persons under contract with insurers, law enforcement agencies and any federal, state or local government agency carrying out its functions; a requester presents identification and files a written sworn statement (Florida Statutes 316.066).

Melbourne hires on three tracks: police officer trainees without certification, Florida certified officers and officers certified in another state.

Trainees apply online, then take the Frontline National Test and the Physical Abilities Test that Eastern Florida State College uses for academy admission, followed by an oral board interview (Melbourne Police Officer Applicant Process). A passing candidate's file goes to the head of the department, who may make a conditional offer; a background investigation, polygraph, medical physical and psychological exam follow before the final hiring decision, and the department then enrolls the new hire in the Eastern Florida State College police academy. Applicants do not need to apply to an academy or take the CJBAT first, and out-of-state applicants can interview by Zoom. Recruiting answers at 321-608-6321 or [email protected].

Certified officers from other states are hired on a temporary employment authorization basis through FDLE, sworn in and paid as Melbourne officers before their certification transfers. The city pays for the Equivalency of Training, which lasts about two weeks and ends with a state exam, and pays officers while they attend (Melbourne applicant process). Grooming rules are on the same page: beards are allowed on duty at 1/4 inch and cleanly kept, and tattoos visible in uniform must be approved before hiring. The city is a veterans' preference employer, an equal opportunity employer and a drug-free workplace.

Last verified: October 21, 2026, after re-reading the Melbourne Police Department main, contact, about, headquarters, records and applicant pages, the FY2025 ACFR staffing and asset schedules, the 2025 Year in Review and Florida Statutes 316.066.