Garland Police Department detective makes headquarters into LEGO model

Most people don't look forward to visiting a police department, but Garland Police gives visitors a fun reason to come by the station.

Walk into the lobby and Garland Police headquarters and it's like looking in a mirror. Sitting on a table under heavy glass, there's a 4-by-6 large-scale model of the Garland Police Law Enforcement Complex made entirely from LEGOS.

"I work in property crimes," Detective John Capers said, explaining LEGOS aren't usually part of his job. "No, that's not part of it unless somebody is stealing a bunch of LEGOS, and that has happened before."

Capers spent about 250 hours turning 33,000 LEGO pieces into a realistic and whimsical model of his workplace.

"I would look at the building, look at the trees, look at the vehicles, and think to myself 'Ok, if I'm gonna build this, what parts would I need,'" Capers said. "No instructions for this one!"

Unlike many home LEGO builds, Capers' build did not come from a box with a manual, it came from his imagination.

"Because I haven't built anything like this before without instructions and instead of starting small, I went big for my first time," Capers said. "There's a YouTube video for how to build everything!"

Capers include 35 trees, police cars, police department volunteers, a TV news crew interviewing a public information officer on the steps, and even a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit tunneling underground to escape. "That's never happened," Capers said laughing.

"It started out being something fun, just artistic," Capers said. "I really didn't plan on it being therapeutic."

But it was therapeutic. While he was working on the LEGO model, Capers lost his best friend and fellow detective to cancer. There's a tribute in the build.

"So on the ID number on the helicopter, I put his initials T.B., Tommy Barnes, and his badge #7539," Capers said. "I want them to kinda see the humanity of the police department; that we're not just there as somebody who has written them a ticket, or taken somebody to jail..and when they see a detective took the time to build this, it just kinda resonates with people when they see a big LEGO build."

Capers said he'd consider another LEGO project if City Hall or another police department was interested.