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We need our police stations
Evening Standard comment9 Jun 2008
The closure of up to 60 police stations across London is intended to save money - but it is bound to disquiet the public. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair says more than 90 per cent of public contact with the police is now by phone, so there is little value in retaining expensive-to-maintain and rarely visited buildings. Clearly much of the network was built in a different era. However, this is a very bad time for the Met to have to persuade the public that closures mean better policing.
Closures have often prompted strong local opposition. For many people, the closing of stations will confirm a perception that policing is inadequate and remote, and that - as with post offices and small local GP practices under threat - their interests are being ignored. Many of the proposed closures are in suburbs, where residents already believe they are neglected by a Met that focuses on the inner city, even though inner-city problems of drug dealing, knife crime and alcohol-related violence are spreading into London's outer areas.
There is indeed a case for more mobile stations and police "shopfronts" in supermarkets, as well as "patrol bases" on industrial estates - provided there are enough of them. But the Met is going to have to work very hard to convince the public that such places, open only during normal business hours, are an improvement on permanent stations. They will not be symbols of authority in the way dedicated stations are. And while it is true that every officer manning a station is not out on the streets, under the new arrangements someone will still have to answer the phones and do the paperwork.
The Met has not yet made a convincing case for these changes. Now Sir Ian must set out much more clearly how the closures will free up manpower to pound the beat.
Reader views (1)
We absolutely need our police stations. Once a police station site is gone, it's gone forever, as it's incredibly costly to find a new site in a town centre for one. All these small shop fronts offer little improvement - it'll just mean more PCs and PCSOs taken up manning these smaller locations, open for more limited hours, and offering less space and facilities. People know where the local police station is, and they're often in good locations in the High Street. I think they've over-estimated the costs of the older stations, many are well built buildings and with imagination could be brought up to date. Some may need to close, but the concept of sticking police out on industrial estates, detached from the main areas of activity, and centralised on borough to make them further away from where crime is happening, is ludicrous. Also, how will police officers reach these "bases" often far away from the train and tube? The net result will be very limited accessibility for the public - not more, and worse response times.
- Huw Morgan, London, 10/06/2008 10:09
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