The Newcastle Herald understands that police minister Mike Gallacher is about to sign off on the major shake-up before announcing that the Belmont, Toronto and Morisset police stations will be knocked down and rebuilt to cater for their area's growing population.

It will also allow the sale of valuable land at the city's current police headquarters at Boolaroo and the highway patrol base at Cardiff, with both buildings now inadequate for modern policing.

The decision is a major shift from the former Labor Government's plan to build a new regional headquarters at Glendale, which attracted criticism because it would have been at the northern end of the local area command and close to the boundaries with Newcastle City and Central Hunter police regions.

But the Liberal government quickly began remodelling the policing policy at Lake Macquarie and followed suggestions that the city's headquarters should be in the heart of the region.

Under the plans, Belmont police station will be knocked down and rebuilt as the headquarters.

Morisset police station, which is operated by a lone officer during the week, will also be rebuilt to accommodate the population boom on the south-western part of Lake Macquarie.

The second stage will see the dilapidated Toronto police station knocked down and rebuilt.

It is understood about $21 million will be set aside for the restructure.

The city's detectives, who are working out of Charlestown police station, could move to new quarters at Belmont. The future of Charlestown and Swansea stations is unclear.

Mr Gallacher's office and the Lake Macquarie local area commander, Superintendent Craig Rae, declined to comment.