Posted on 12/11/2006 7:58:32 PM PST by kiriath_jearim
Nearly 900 police stations have closed in England and Wales in the past 14 years, according to government figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph, while the vast majority of those still operating are only open to the public for limited hours.
A survey of opening times on the websites of a dozen forces, with more than 400 stations, shows that only 24 — fewer than six per cent — are advertised as open 24 hours a day. Most close during the night.
The police service's retreat from open-door access at the times when criminals, particularly drunken thugs, are most active was disturbingly illustrated at the weekend when a businessman was beaten to death only yards from a police station in Henley-on-Thames, south Oxfordshire. advertisement
The station was closed to the public but staff were working inside, though they did not hear the attack. He was found dying by officers in a police patrol car.
Stephen Langford, 43, suffered a fatal attack in the early hours of Saturday morning but the Henley station only opens between 9am and 5pm on weekdays.
This is despite a sharp rise in offences of violence in Henley, traditionally regarded as a low crime area, over the past year.
As detectives continued to question two youths in connection with the killing last night, the residents of Henley-on-Thames said the death of the father of two was a tragedy waiting to happen.
Tony Lane, 79, the town's former mayor who has lived in Henley all his life, said a combination of drunken behaviour and dangerously low policing levels was to blame.
"You never see a policeman on the beat in Henley. It's got that bad," he said. "That's fine during the day when the genteel face of Henley is on display but come Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening, it's a completely different story.
"The kids come out of the nightclubs at 2am completely drunk and they have nothing better to do than to cause wanton damage.
"And where are the police when all this happens? Nowhere to be seen. The police station is open from 9am to 5pm during the week and is closed at the weekends — the time when it is needed the most. What message does that send out to yobs?"
At Henley police station yesterday, the only police officer immediately visible on entering the building was a cardboard cut-out.
Home Office figures show that both Labour and Conservative governments have allowed police chiefs to close hundreds of stations.
The true total of closures since 1992 is almost certainly higher than the 880 given by the Home Office, as some large forces, including the Metropolitan and West Midlands, have only provided figures in recent years.
Of the known 880 closures, a total of 516 were under Labour, with 364 under John Major's Tory administration — a higher rate of closures under the Conservatives.
The closures have been partly counter-balanced by the opening of new police premises.
Since 1992, a total of 376 has opened, 298 of them under Labour and 78 under the Tories. The net loss by March this year, when there was a total of 1,758 stations in England and Wales, was 504.
Though some of the 376 new premises were large, imposing, multi-million-pound divisional headquarters, many were smaller police "offices" far removed from the distinctive buildings they replaced.
Forces are currently moving towards putting neighbourhood patrol officers in council offices, community centres and even supermarkets.
In addition, the Home Office figures do not reflect the extent to which most police chiefs have reduced the opening times of stations.
The force that polices Henley, Thames Valley, has 61 stations of various kinds. Only three — Oxford, Milton Keynes and Reading — are open to the public 24 hours a day.
Of the 24 open round the clock in a selection of 12 representative forces, a dozen were in Essex. It suggests that, with the will from the top of the force, stations can be open at all times. Some forces — including Kent, Surrey, Suffolk and Devon and Cornwall — had no stations advertising 24-hour opening.
Town councillors in Henley were recently told by their local police commander that there were 211 crimes of
violence in the six months to October this year, compared with 188 in the same period in 2005.
A Thames Valley police spokesman said: "Henley is patrolled by officers 24 hours a day every day and the police station is operational all of the time.
"However, officers will spend most of their time out on patrol rather than in the station itself. The attack had just happened and Stephen's friend was in the process of raising the alarm when the officers arrived.
"The station front office is open to the public on weekdays to report crimes in slow time and other non-emergency business.
"The opening times are set according to demand from the public. Any emergency incident should be reported via 999 and not through a police station front office.
"Therefore, the opening times of Henley police station did not affect the police response to this incident and officers actually arrived as quickly as if it had been reported through any other means."
Both the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) insist that police stations were only a part of the policing picture, arguing that few people wished to visit them at night and that what mattered was a visible presence on the streets and swift 999 responses.
However, Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "Increasing public awareness that police stations are often not open after dark comes on top of government cuts to the promised number of police community support offers and withdrawal of Home Office funding for the single non-emergency number.
"These cutbacks hamper the ability of the police to be as accessible to the public as they need to be to deliver effective, visible, policing."
The Daily Telegraph disclosed recently that a Home Office plan to fund 24,000 PCSOs by 2008 has now been scaled down to 16,000.
The move raises questions about the ability of forces to expand neighbourhood policing, and that funding will dry up for projects to create a 101 alternative to the heavily over-used 999 emergency number.
My town of just a hair over 20,000 persons has a sworn PD of 40 officers and is most definetely 'open for business' 24-7-365.
It's almost impossible to believe that a Police Station isn't 'open' 24 hours a day.
Unreal.
L
Come on, ya limey poofters, give us some sign that you're not committing national suicide.
"It's almost impossible to believe that a Police Station isn't 'open' 24 hours a day. Unreal."
***
Perhaps you are right. However, how many small towns are there in the UK? Nine hundred seems like a trivial amount compared to the number of villages, burgs, towns, etc. On the other hand, if one is being robbed or mugged in a small village or town with a closed police department, it is not an honor (or a health benefit) to be among the "900".
Don't forget that many simple folding knives are also illegal in the U.K. at this time. Apparently it is For The ChildrenTM
from what they're telling everyone over there.~ Blue Jays ~
I'm completely serious about the restriction on folding knives in their country! Do a search on FR using the term "akti" and you'll see some very interesting threads. It is difficult to believe that a once-sturdy people who brought us superb individuals like Winston Churchill and devolving into a frightened society comprised of little schoolgirls...it's pathetic, really.
This sounds like the Canadian Guards at the Border Crossings between U.S.and Canada. If they receive a report of a armed criminal headed their way from the U.S. the Canadian Guards close up and go home..No kidding.
Not quite what it seems. The closure of a small local police station doesn't mean, as you seem to imply, that the area loses its police cover - simply that it's covered from a base in a larger centre further away. Remember that in Britain policing is organised on a county, not city basis, and these closures stem from management reforms in the county force. The argument for the closures is all based on efficiency - small stations are costly in overheads, and the cash saved can better be put into front-line officers.
That's the theory. Whether it works in practice is more debatable. There's both cost and benefit in all reforms of this kind, and the jury's still out on this one. Some senior police officers I know are convinced it was necessary, and that a lot of these small local stations (many in old, inefficient buildings) were long past their sell-by date.
Tell that to the dead guy.
Whether it works in practice is more debatable
Apparently so.
lot of these small local stations (many in old, inefficient buildings) were long past their sell-by date.
We just build new ones usually. We have County level Police as well, but we call them Sheriffs. They have jurisdiction in the areas not actually incorporated into towns, in Courthouses, and the County jails.
I'm trying to understand the system you use. So you'll have a County which has its own police force rather like our Sheriffs and then they have jurisdiction in the towns located in that County?
Is that accurate?
Thanks for the help.
L
Your question at the end - yes. Although to be accurate, a lot of the forces cover a region or sub-region rather than just one county - my own local force, for instance, is the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary. This has jurisdiction over all policing, both rural and urban, in the two counties. Last year the Home Office proposed further consolidation into yet larger regional forces, but this was dropped after near universal opposition by the police.
Incidentally, a lot of the closed smaller stations were legacies of Victorian policing when every officer needed to have a base within walking distance (later, cycling distance) of his beat, since that was the only way he got about. Rationalisations down the line (and there have been many of them) were inevitable - the only question is whether they have gone too far.
It works differently here. Once a town 'incorporates' it's expected, usually but not always, to provide a Police Dept and most times a Fire Dept as well.
Then the Sheriffs continue to patrol the unincorporated areas of the County.
The County I live in is almost entirely incorporated now. There's very little unincorporated area left. So the Sheriffs are largely left to deal with the County Courthouse and the County Jail.
The Sheriffs Dept is now in the rather uncomfortable position of having to justify the number of Deputies on its staff. So they're kind of inventing things for themselves to do like a County Bomb Squad, SWAT team, and that sort of thing.
I appreciate your taking the time to educate me on the subject.
L
So find new space. Jeepers, how are they going to do community policing from further away?
Your reply answered my question :) But I think they need their heads examined.
One thing to remember is that Britain has a lot of villages that are really close together, sometimes only a mile or two apart. Some of these offices may have been shuttered.
The retired LEO in me is boiling over with a barely suppressed rant and psuedo Islamic rage here.
The huge amount of money wasted and the deaths and injuries caused by the "patty cake" liberals who insist on "Officer Friendly" & costly ineffective DARE type programs and "social communication" as well as "community policing", "Citizen Police Academies" methods(both here and the UK) are patently incorrect and efforts are politically correct but grossly misdirected.
Good patrol reliable vehicles with two man (large, substantial men at that)patrols that are aggressive in nature and zoning, as well as sufficient staffing based on sound selection of personnel is what is needed. With overlaping patrols. Here. There. Everywhere.
Cutbacks in some forms of service are necessary; such as a Swat type team for every municipality is a flagrant waste of money. The County Sheriff can provide a centrally located source for such rarely used services.
Do away with motorcycle units. They do earn money for a town/city but piss off the people and do NOT do much in the way of LE, or provission of protection for the public, who pay the bills.
Special "informational" or public relations type units are mostly useless, costly and a drain on personnel, who could be better utilized in actual enforcement or policing duties.
Detective divisions in smaller towns or municipalities are mostly wasted, and can be greatly reduced to a few Detectives who triage cases for further investigation. Major cases would be handled by a regional(county)unit.
Most cases are never going to be investigated and the local Dicks should be able to see what has potential to be a threat and what is just another BS insurance claim.
Police admittedly can not respond to a call fast enough to stop the crime from being committed or to protect a member of the public from beeing assaulted(or worse)and certainly notwithstanding the "Serve & Protect" decal on their vehicles, perform that function. Police departments admit that they can not protect you from harm.
Citizens have a *RIGHT* and a ***DUTY*** to take their own safety into their own hands and perform that function for themselves.
I am boiling over here, and that is not too good.
I expect there will be some onversation here, and I will look foward to that after some coffee and a high blood pressure pill. :~)
Please: "War on Drugs Robots" need not apply.
Who needs police when you have Torchwood?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.