Police services in post office plan

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/n ... s/10149616._/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?

Police services will be offered in a post office in a trial scheme held as Scotland Yard faces making cuts of £500 million.

Deputy Mayor Stephen Greenhalgh announced that the Metropolitan Police are in "very early discussions" to set up the pilot, which will be established in six months' time.

The force plans to sell 200 buildings including the landmark New Scotland Yard as it faces making cuts of £500 million to its £3.6 billion annual budget. In total 65 front counters are facing closure - the force says that fewer people are visiting police stations in person and these are the least used facilities in the capital.

Mr Greenhalgh said: "Typically they (post offices) are staffed by people who are security cleared, are used to taking cash, used to transactions. Some post offices also have secure rooms as well. What we propose to do at this stage, and we are in very early discussions with the Post Office, is to pilot something, to test something out, and to only expand that if it works.

"But in theory post offices could provided a fixed point on the high street, with some branding with the Metropolitan Police Service, where you could potentially bring your lost property, if you need to produce identification, if there's a licence that you need to go to a police station for, you could maybe do that in a post office. And even very simple crime reporting potentially could be done."


A public consultation is to begin on how Met bosses should deal with the heavy cutbacks. Proposals include the movement of 800 detectives from specialist squads out to neighbourhood teams.

Assistant Commissioner Simon Byrne said: "Some of the people in squads, if you're using how we train and accredit, aren't actually detectives, they're just constables who wear jeans and a T-shirt. So their level of training is different to someone who has gone on a course."


There would be more constables under the plans - up from 24,630 now to 25,909 in 2015, but a reduction in senior ranks. These would go from 37 senior managers and 7,160 supervisors now, down to 26 senior managers and 6,022 supervisors in two years' time.

Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey said dealing with fewer chances for promotion for the remaining officers was "challenging".

He said: "That's one of the most challenging things internally. In fairness that is part of the whole programme of change. There will be fewer opportunities for promotion in the short term, but in 2015/2016 that will open up again."

[TrueBlueTerrier]

David Lammy: 'Cack-handed' policing plan will be red rag to criminals

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/d ... 44225.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tottenham MP David Lammy condemned plans to cut Tottenham police station opening hours to only daytime opening as “cack-handed and wrong-headed.”

He said the move would be a “red rag to criminals saying : “ I find it extraordinary that just 18 months after flames were emanating from Tottenham during the riots and spreading across London we have a situation where we are stopping 24 hour policing.

“I fear it will lead to a return to cities like New York in the 1980s and early 90s when the city was in the grip of crime. “

A pilot scheme revealed today will mean Londoners will soon be able to report crime in post offices in a radical shake-up of policing in the capital.

The scheme, to be launched this summer, will see officers based in a central London post office as the Met brings in plans to shut 65 of the city’s 136 police stations.

The Mayor’s policing chief Stephen Greenhalgh said people will be able to report minor crime, produce ID documents, report lost property and conduct simple “transactions” in the post office under the test scheme.

The move is revealed today in a draft police and crime plan for London which is intended to cut £500 million from the Met’s £3.6 billion budget over the next three years.

Police chiefs also revealed plans to shake up neighbourhood policing with just one police officer and a police community support officer dedicated to each ward compared with a team of six officers and staff at present.

Instead, teams of officers working under an inspector dubbed a local “sheriff” will be deployed to target high-crime areas on estates or shopping malls where they are needed.

The move will hit suburbs where there is less crime which will lose their dedicated safer neighbourhood teams.

The changes will be detailed at a series of consultation meetings in every London borough in the next eight weeks.

In another radical move 800 detectives will be transferred from specialist borough squads to patrolling the streets. Around 75 local detective squads which target crimes such as burglary and robbery will be replaced by a larger “proactive” squad in each borough.

In total, the Met hopes to stick to a pledge to keep the total number of officers at around 32,000 in London — currently numbers have fallen below 31,000. Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey said they planned to boost the number of constables by 1,279 while senior chief officer ranks will be cut from 37 to 26.

In addition, supervisory roles from sergeant to superintendent will be slashed by more than 1,200.

Police staff will be cut by 1,564 to leave a total of 11,846 by 2016.

Senior officers confirmed plans first revealed by the Standard last month to axe half of all London’s police stations to save millions a year.

A total of 200 buildings will be sold, including New Scotland Yard HQ, while front counters will be opened in supermarkets, coffee shops, libraries — and post offices. Assistant Commissioner Simon Byrne, head of Territorial Policing, said the changes would mean an extra 2,600 officers in local policing teams.

He said: “We want to put more officers on visible patrol coming face to face with the public. We want to put neighbourhood policing at the heart of what we do.”

He added: “We are moving away from an old fashioned model of policing in London and moving to a more imaginative model of putting officers on the streets, policing communities.”

Mr Byrne denied the changes were “anti-CID” but he described some detectives as “constables who wore jeans and T-shirts”. He said: “We want to make sure the detective experience and skills are spread more evenly. They do good work and we will still see a world where there is a traditional CID office.”

[fishtank]

I'm here to report a crime.

I'm sorry you'll have to go to the back of the queue,it's pension day and road tax day and we're really busy,would you like some Post Office home insurance leaflets to read while you're waiting?.

[fishtank]

libraries....



I'm here to report a crime..

Shhh...

Sorry...i said i'm here to report a crime.

Shhhhh.....

Sorry...i said i'm here...do you know what...forget it

[houseoflords]

I like this bit: The force says that fewer people are visiting police stations in person and these are the least used facilities in the capital. that's because nowt is ever done.

[baldrick]

The counter staff in central London BOs are already stretched as there were EVR/VRs in November. Queues are long. At the moment there is still a postman in most BOs, after 2pm to despatch mail, but these posts are supposed to be terminated soon, and the counter staff will also have to bag up and despatch mails.
I don't know how they are also supposed to receive crime reports.
Also it would not seem to be very confidential