Local bases are crucial in battle to keep public safe
DURING MY campaign to become a Police and Crime Commissioner, I must have met thousands of ordinary people. But almost without exception, I heard the same concern.
Major crimes, serious though they are, didn’t worry the vast majority of people. What really bothered them on a day-to-day basis was the closure of their local police station. Why, they asked me, would they now have to travel 15 or 20 miles to find one still open?
Having a police station where they could go and report a crime or ask for advice faceto-face was their No 1 issue.
So, after I was elected as independent PCC for Gwent in 2012, I reversed the Chief Constable’s decision to close 17 front desks across the county.
Seven were reopened completely and the opening hours of two more extended.
The feedback I received as a result was hugely appreciative. The public felt reassured to have police back at the heart of their community.
But the picture across the rest of the country is not so rosy. As this newspaper reveals today, almost half have closed in the last seven years.
Apart from a drop in public confidence, police are missing out on vital intelligence.
In one case on my patch, a man approached me with information after a woman was attacked in a park. He knew who the suspect was, so he went to the local police station but found it was shut. An opportunity missed.
There is no substitute for a proper police station. We tried putting front counters in libraries instead. They didn’t take off. Some people are nervous about being seen to talk to the police. Libraries are open spaces, but you can give confidential information in privacy in a police station.
It’s also of great concern that the number of cells are falling. Officers thinking of arresting somebody, say for a public order offence, know they may have to take them 35 miles to the nearest custody suite.
And as there are fewer custody suites, they might then have to wait two or three hours to book the suspect in. So for half a shift they’re out of action.
PCCs and Chief Constables do their best to balance competing demands in a tough financial environment. But something’s got to give if the choice is between taking cops off the street or shutting stations.
If footfall has gone down, they’ve got to consider the costs of staffing stations.
The money is getting tighter and tighter and I can only see the situation getting worse. But closing stations is making the police further removed from the public they serve.