Demise Of Our Local Police Station Houses

[Bazile]

In my area all the local stations have been closed - well the nearest three to me have .

Speaking to a bobby yesterday , who informed me that the nearest one is in the Area HQ in the city centre

Is this a national policy - are your local stations still open ?

[youngmafbog]

Where Police stations are not used much they are being closed. Many are simply not the best use of funds and expensive to run.

Same for Banks etc. If you want to keep them use them.

[Bazile]

There aren't many occasions when the average joe would use a police station is there - what would one use it for day to day ?

Its not like a bank or a post office or a library , etc

[barry1010]

All the local police stations have closed in my area, it started at least 15 years ago.
It is a nationwide policy.

[Old_Geezer]

Been happening for decades. Policing, and access to it, is low priority in today's brave new world.

[Old_Geezer]

Yes banking is also low priority. More examples of how today's society is turning into a nightmare, and being allowed to.

[archibaldy]

// what would one use it for day to day ? /

Most people don't make a daily visit to the police station but when one needs to it's nicer not to have to travel.

[Buenchico]

Suffolk isn't a particularly small county. (It's around a 2-hour drive to get from Lowestoft to Haverhill, for example). However we've only had three police stations that are open to the public here for well over a decade (and probably closer to two now). They're in Lowestoft, Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich and are open 'office hours only'. (0900 to 1700, Monday to Saturday).

The one in Ipswich (which is the county town) is little more than a 'front desk', staffed by civilians, where people can hand in any paperwork that might be required by the police and make general enquiries. People required by the courts to periodically report to a police station can also check in there. I believe that there are also one or two interview rooms there, with recording facilities for taking witness statements, as well as the building being a base for the PCSOs and council street wardens who patrol the town's streets, but that's about the full extent of what's there.

There are no police officers based there who can, for example, accept reports from people who think that they've been the victims of fraud. (I know that from a woman who tried to do just that there. She was told to use the Action Fraud website instead). All of the investigatory staff are based either at a big 'offices only' site on one side of the town or at the County HQ on the other side of the town (which is where prisoners under arrest are taken). Neither of those two sites is open to the general public.

[jourdain2]

Nearest one is 10 miles away. It's poor service. I keep filling in local surveys and saying that I would not be certain of a 'rapid response' in case of emergency, but nothing happens. There was a police house in our village once - it's now a private dwelling.
There is a designated local officer, but I've never seen him and can't remember his name.

[Atheist]

Governments don't like to tax the public because it loses them votes. Having human beings working in Police stations or on trains or passport offices or anywhere, really, is expensive, so the govt thinks "computers can do this."
People don't visit banks because there aren't many left and because people have apps and bank websites to go to. People don't visit police stations because there aren't many.
No-one is scared about behaving badly in public because there is no-one around to tick them off. In the olden days, the local bobby or the local park-keeper, or even the nearest adult would make kids think twice.
The world changes.

[jourdain2]

I'm not sure it's for the better, Atheist. Access to banks etc. is essential for very many - I know quite a few people who don't even have a computer. As you implied, local police presence nipped a lot of trouble in the bud.

[david small]

We have lost nearly all police stations on the Isle of Wight. Police houses, long gone. Cops in cars only.

[Hopkirk]

Why would I need a local police station?

[barry1010]

Could be inconvenient for motorists who have been given a producer - does that still happen? Also people on bail who have to 'sign on' at a police station several times a week for maybe many months.
My wife and children have never had reason to set foot in a police station, I've handed in a handbag that I found years ago.
Do we really need local police stations open to the public?
I remember when police stations had their own bars with very cheap booze.

.

[Hopkirk]

I think modern technology means you don't have to 'produce' your licence any more, in the same way as tax discs and MOT certificates are history.

[barry1010]

Hopkirk, what about insurance certificates? The driver might not be the registered keeper but be driving on his own 'any car' policy or be a named driver. When stopped he might not remember who he is insured with

[TheWinner]

david small, sorry to butt in, but a fellow ABer needs help with a quiz about the IOW if you could help.

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Quizzes-and-Puzzles/Crosswords/Question1794247.html

[Hopkirk]

Insurance certificates used to be unique and vital. You had to have a cover note until your certificate arrived.
Now you can print your own, and they are not proof.
It's all digital and on line these days.

[gulliver1]

Wonder, when all the Pubs and restaurants will close down , and we will have to start eating and drinking on line.

[barry1010]

A lot of people do,gully, with Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Just Eat.....
Very often that food is not cooked in restaurants or take away outlets but containers and units on trading estates.

[barry1010]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/business/2017/oct/28/deliveroo-dark-kitchens-pop-up-feeding-the-city-london