Police station closures (FOI ref: 1713A/25)
Request
1) A list of all police stations, with their exact locations, which are currently operational and can be accessed by the public. The list should also include whether the stations have an operating front desk and whether the stations have been opened since 2010.
2) A list of all police stations closed since 2010, with their dates of closure (month–year) and the exact locations of these stations. The list should also include whether the stations had their front desk closed or not and whether the stations have been sold or not.
Response
Please find attached our response (1713A_25_attachment.pdf). The list is for properties that meet the Home Office definition of a Police Station i.e. 'operational police facility with a public enquiry counter open during the day and should include Police Offices'.
“All decisions regarding our estate are scrutinised in public by the Police and Crime Commissioner who owns our buildings. The Chief Constable is responsible for how we use those buildings, to enable police officers to keep people safe
“The decision to dispose or acquire sites is made by the PCC, based on operational policing recommendations made by the Chief Constable. All relevant documents are then published on the PCC's website.
“Every area of the West Midlands is served by a police station with a public contact office where people can talk to us face to face.
“In addition, we have significantly expanded our online services with people now able to chat to us online in real-time, as well as reporting any offence or providing us with information via our website.”
Every effort is made to ensure that the information presented is accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that this data has been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request may be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting the data.
The information provided therefore is our best interpretation of data which has relevance to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.
Attachment