Police cuts: stations to close early

West Midlands Police are changing to the opening hours of some of its front offices as they try to save 127 million pounds over the next 4 years.

They say it's part of an ongoing commitment to modernise the force and isn't related to the closure of police stations and that 99% of households will never be more than four miles from a 24/7 police station across the region.

The force is proposing, from January next year, changes to the opening hours of 12 front offices:

The force has already started the consultation process with local councillors and MPs and on Monday 21st of November they launched a consultation process with the public on the proposed changes.

People will be able to give their views via:
Online: Questionnaire on the force''s website www.west-midlands.police.uk.
Email: Views via contactus@west-midslands.police.uk,
Post: West Midlands Police, HQ, Lloyd House, Colmore Circus, Queensway, B4 6NQ.

Under the proposals, 11 front offices will remain open 24/7, 21 will open between 10am-6pm, one will be open 8am-8pm daily and the opening times of a further 22 front offices will remain unchanged.

In total, West Midlands Police will continue to provide 65 front offices open to the public; a service to local communities far wider than most other police forces offer across the country.

"The public know that we have to save 20 per cent of our budget over a four year period and they will be expecting us to ask questions about making sure we are efficient and productive and are prioritising our service around protecting them," said
Deputy Chief Constable Dave Thompson.

"I must stress that nothing is changing to where officers work from and these changes will not impact on the way we work with local communities.

"This is about service transformation. We need to modernise our approach as we police a different world now to what we did even ten years ago. The majority of people now contact us over the phone or via email and would simply never want to set foot in a police station. We are modernising our approach to contact, such as making more use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, which a growing audience use to communicate with us.

"We need to provide a service that is right for the people we serve and not carry on working in a particular way simply because it''s the way we always have.

"We would encourage members of the public to visit our website from Monday to find out more and to tell us their views."