Police station closures: HMIC fills in the gaps
Readers of this morning's Daily Mail might have been alarmed to learn that a fifth of all police stations were facing closure:
Full Fact afficionardos with long memories might recall a similar story appearing on the front page of the Mirror last autumn, when the paper claimed that 200 stations were "facing the axe".
As we found when we looked into the matter, data on police station closures aren't centrally collected. However after a series of Freedom of Information requests we found that the Mirror's figures didn't seem unreasonable (although it was also worth noting that a similar number had opened over the same period).
However only 20 of the 50 police forces we contacted at the time were able to provide us with data, meaning there were several gaps that were left unfilled.
Today's Mail gives a very specific figure for the number of police 'front desks' that have been supposedly earmarked for closure: 264. So what new information has emerged?
The Mail story takes its cue from a HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) report released yesterday titled 'Policing in Austerity: One Year On.'
Anyone taking a glance at HMIC's report might have been surprised by the Mail's claim that a fifth of stations were facing closure, as HMIC seem to suggest that the figure was closer to one in seven:
As we found when we looked at the issue last year however, there is more than one definition for what a 'police station' can include.
As HMIC makes clear, for the purposes of the table above, 'police stations' are only those buildings used by police staff alone, whereas premises accessible to the public - those the public themselves might recognise as police stations - are here classed as 'front counters':
"A police station in this table refers to a police building that is solely or predominantly for the use of police officers and police staff but does not have a front counter. Front counter refers to a police building that is open to the public to access face to face police services. Shared service sites refers to locations where the public can routinely access police services at a location other than a police building."
It is this second category of 'front counter' that the Mail is referring to when it claims that a fifth of all 'stations' are set to be axed. (The 'shared locations' are, in HMIC's words "other locations where the police will be based in buildings such as libraries and supermarkets" - the 'Tescos' of the Mail headline.)
HMIC's analysis is based upon information provided by all but one of the 43 police forces in England and Wales, whereas the information we uncovered last year came from just 20. In addition, our FoIs looked at those stations that had already shut their doors, while HMIC take a look at what the future may bring.
HMIC also present a 'net' figure for police station closures - the balance of closures and openings over the five years between 2009/10 and 2014/15 - whereas the Mirror last year only looked at closures.
Our analysis of the data we were able to get hold of last year did recieve a good deal of attention, and several readers got in touch to ask if any more information had been provided to us. While we were disappointed that more police forces weren't able to give us the figures on station closures, we're pleased that HMIC has acted to fill this hole given that it is an area which the public clearly feels strongly about.