11293 report 19 - CAIN - University of Ulster

policing in a peaceful societyRecommendation 53a:Appearance of Police Stations (Existing)Patten Recommendation:53. Existing police stations should - subject to the security situation in their areas and to healthand safety considerations - be progressively made less forbidding in appearance, moreaccessible to public callers and more congenial for those working in them.The publicreception areas inside police stations should be made more welcoming, and civilianreceptionists could replace police officers.Lead Responsibility: NIO/Policing Board/Chief ConstableRecommendation StatusFull compliance with this recommendation has not yet been achieved. (Moderate progress)HistoryThe Independent Commission recommended, dependent on the security situation, major changesto the existing police stations, to include removing the fortress like appearance and making thestations progressively less forbidding and more accessible to the public. Members of the oversightteam have inspected and photographed almost all of the 137 police stations during the past sevenyears and found that both the interior and exterior of a vast majority of the stations have aforbidding appearance. During this period of time the security situation has improvedconsiderably.Although the initial progress in implementing this recommendation was slow, the May of 2005revised Estate Strategy included plans and timetables to implement the recommendation. Thestrategy, which was approved by the NIO and Policing Board (the owner of the police estate),includes plans for ongoing station improvements and maintenance, use of mobile policing units orthe sharing of community facilities to create “store front” police stations, a major worksprogramme, a recommended station closure list, and written guidance and a template for DCUcommanders to follow when recommending that a station be closed and sold.The Estate Strategy also delegates to the DCU commanders the authority to remove out-of-datesecurity walls and fortifications from police stations that have a forbidding appearance withoutseeking headquarters approval. The reasons for limited progress in removing the fortificationswere reported as the lack of funding, time required to obtain headquarters approval, and periodicchanges in Police Service direction and organisation. Improvements have been made to both theinterior and exterior of those buildings serving as headquarters or administrative offices, but therehave been limited results in removing fortifications at a large number of ordinary police stations.The December of 2006 report by the National Audit Office on the estate strategy also noted that“although the Police Service has reduced in size by a third since 2001 the estate has remainedvirtually unchanged.”The size of the police estate is large and expensive to maintain. Many of the stations are notstrategically located (2007 and beyond) or are under-utilised. The Policing Board has acted on 22of the 61 police stations the Police Service recently recommended for sale, including several along69