Have a Happy New Year but Get Home Safe

As 2012 approaches no doubt many of you will be planning to head out and spend time with friends and family to see in the New Year.

As you make your plans, please think about where you will be going, who you will be with and most importantly, how you intend to get home.

New Years Eve can be one of the busiest nights of the year when thousands of people will be out and about. If you do not plan your journey home and leave arrangements to chance, it could be a very bad ending to a great night out.

When you are out please drink responsibly and don’t separate from your friends. Isolated people can be more vulnerable, especially when they have consumed alcohol and they can easily become the victim of anti-social behaviour or crime.

Your Police Service want you to be safe and enjoy the vibrant night-time economy and the fantastic range of venues for all to enjoy.

When you are out remember to:

• plan your journey home in advance


• drink responsibly


• don’t walk through areas you are unsure of


• stay in well-lit areas


• stick with your friends


• never accept a drink from someone you don’t know


• always have enough money to get yourself home.

Have a great New Year, plan early and most importantly 'Get Home Safe'.

Supporting Victims of Domestic Abuse this Christmas

Hopefully, like me, you’re looking forward to the opportunity of relaxing for a few days in the company of family and friends over the Christmas period.

Sadly however there are those for whom Christmas 2011 is a time they will want to forget.

If you've been tuning into the local news over the past few days you will no doubt have heard that the PSNI is receiving an increasing number of reports in relation to domestic abuse. Already this year we have received an 500 additional reports.

We want to encourage victims, men and women, of domestic abuse to report to police and therefore we welcome a rise in reports, although we know that many more incidents still go unreported.

Traditionally, reported domestic abuse increases over the Christmas period and I would want to reassure victims that if they take the courageous step of coming forward they will be supported, receive specialist help and advice and that where possible positive action will be taken against the perpetrator.

If you are a victim of domestic abuse, please do not suffer in silence - especially at this Christmas time. The longer you leave it the worse the abuse is likely to get. We can and will help you.

If you feel you cannot report directly to us, then you can call the Domestic Abuse helpline on 0800 917 1414. Over the Christmas period our partners in the voluntary sector will like us be working round the clock to keep victims safe and supported. I pay tribute to the dedication and commitment of our partner agencies during this holiday season.

Please help us, and all those who work in this really important area, to help you have a happier Christmas.

The future of our Police Estate

I listened intently as the Justice Minster recently announced that he was undertaking a review of the Court Service Estate, with the potential for a number of Court House closures.

You will no doubt have heard or seen reports in the media over the past few weeks that we have been briefing the Policing Board on our Estate Strategy. Like the Court Service, we must rationalise our estate in order to support the delivery of efficiencies.

Over this four year Comprehensive Spending Review period, the Police Service of Northern Ireland must realise £135 million in savings. This is not about closing stations simply to save money, but to rationalise the police estate to ensure that we have fit for purpose police stations in the right locations.

This goal is further being realised with the building of two new stations in Ballymoney and Downpatrick, the planned build of the Joint Services College in Desertcreat, Cookstown, and the recent opening of the brand new 'state of the art' Musgrave station in Belfast City Centre.

We currently have 83 police premises, 34 of which are on a review list for consideration of closure. Our police estate is 70% greater than other UK police services of a comparable size.

I know from my conversations with many members of rural communities that there is something symbolic about having a police station in their town or village, but it is important to understand that many of these stations average less than one caller daily, with the majority of people increasingly contacting police by phone, through our website, or interacting with us using social media.

Policing has always been a 'people' business, delivered by police officers and staff rather than by buildings. It is therefore so important that police officers go to where people are, rather than waiting for people to come to us, often in buildings that are no longer fit for purpose or in the right places.

It is important that I reassure those of you who remain unconvinced that the closure of a police building does not in any way reduce the police presence in an area. Dedicated neighbourhood and response policing teams, equipped with Blackberry mobile technology, mean that officers no longer have to continually return to police stations to update records, and this allows them to remain on patrol in local areas for longer.

Our ultimate goal is that once officers have reported for duty and then leave the station to patrol their area of responsibility, that they remain in that patrol area for as long as possible - even availing of their meal break in a local cafe or restaurant.

We will of course be speaking to local communities and taking on board your views before we make any definite decisions, so I encourage you to engage with us in this process and make your views known.