Norwich Evening News reports that two Norwich police beat bases could be closed and replaced with a “state-of-the-art” station on a chunk of a city high school's playing field.
Police want to close the Mile Cross base at Woodcock Road and the Thorpe Hamlet station on Thorpe Road - both of which are not open to the public.
They are proposing to make the two into one by buying a piece of the playing field on the east site of Sewell Park College, on Sprowston Road, to build a new station to cover both patches.
A police spokesman said today: “Norfolk Constabulary is currently in negotiations with Norfolk County Council to purchase a piece of land in the corner of the recreation site of Sewell Park College.
“The aim is to replace Thorpe Hamlet and Mile Cross police stations by 2011. Mile Cross is currently too small and Thorpe Hamlet is no longer fit for purpose.
“It is hoped the creation of a state-of-the-art North Norwich police station will increase the quality of service to the local community. The plans are still at a very early stage.”
While we are all for state efficiencies, this is nothing of the kind. One would venture that the old smaller stations are no "longer fit for purpose" because the police no longer engage in community policing. Instead they need more centralisation and "state-of-the-art facilities" to perform their role as administrators, like the good little
bureaucrats they are.
RSS Syndication
2 comments:
Some Singapore and Japanese community police stations are often little more than two rooms. They appear to serve their purpose very well indeed from my personal experience.
The Japanese police boxes are called Koban it seems we should go back to this style of policing.
In fact I was told that the literal translation of the slang for the local beat bobby was 'Mister Walking Around '
You certainly couldn't apply that to the British Constable today
Post a Comment