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.