County police stations 'have become friendlier' (From Gazette & Herald)

County police stations 'have become friendlier'

POLICE stations in North Yorkshire have been made much more accessible and friendly over the past five years, a force spokesman has claimed.

But he said there were practical and financial limits to how far the force could go in opening up to the public.

The spokesman was responding to a report calling for traditional police stations to be bulldozed in favour of friendlier, open-plan offices, with glass screens removed and open days staged to draw in members of the public.

The report by the left-wing think-tank the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) claimed that police stations were intimidating or alienating, and often felt more like fortresses or prisons.

Associate director Ben Rogers said in the report, called Reinventing the Police Station: "There needs to be nothing short of a revolution in the design of police buildings.

"The reception area of most modern police stations is often the only public space at all and could scarcely be less hospitable.

"They generally take the form of a small boxed room with inadequate seating in the form of metal benches.

"Police staff are separated from the public by one or sometimes two glass screens.

"People need to feel comfortable and willing to contact the police, whether to report a crime, submit a driving licence or complain about anti-social neighbours."

The North Yorkshire Police spokesman, Tony Lidgate, said the force had long accepted that stations should be as accessible and open to the public as possible, and major improvements had been made at all larger stations in the past five years.

For example, disabled access had been greatly improved at stations across the county, including Harrogate and Skipton, with new stations such as on the one at Clifton Moor, York, being built to full disabled access standards.

He said a superintendent, Ian Spittal, had been given special responsibility last year for public accessibility to stations, and interview facilities for victims of assault had been made much more friendly and comfortable.

He said that training for inquiry office staff stressed the importance of being sensitive to the needs of people, who could sometimes be almost incoherent because they were shocked or frightened.

But he stressed that there were often practical difficulties and obstacles in the way of improving openness and accessibility.

"We don't like protective glass screens. They are an impediment to communications," he said.

But at the moment, glass screens were seen as being essential to protect staff from members of the public who were sometimes "steamed up" and could be at risk of being violent.

Updated: 12:04 Wednesday, January 05, 2005