Kingston and Surbiton police stations to be emptied? (From Surrey Comet)

Kingston and Surbiton police stations to be emptied?

1:11pm Wednesday 11th June 2008

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The Metropolitan Police are quietly drawing up radical plans to re-deploy hundreds of officers, which could eventually see Kingston and Surbiton police stations sold off.

The days of walking into a large old-fashioned police station to report a crime would end, replaced with user-friendly counters in shopping centres, schools, hospitals, churches or council buildings.

Instead the 301 officers, 62 staff and 74 community support officers would be split between smaller safer neighbourhood offices dealing with low-level crimes, backed up by teams in a giant warehouse-style building on an industrial estate and a privately-run prison cell block shared with Richmond.

A little-seen consultation document on the asset management strategy, released on the Met Police website in November and withdrawn three months later, said Kingston police station was inadequate, inefficient and expensive to maintain with not enough parking spaces.

After new buildings are found, the future use of the two main police stations in Kingston and Surbiton would be "considered", it said.

For more on this story see today's Surrey Comet.

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