Eastern District’s three main police stations will be reducing public counter opening hours in a bid to get more police out on the street.
The Napier, Hastings and Gisborne stations will have new public counter opening hours of 7am-9pm daily from 1 December. The stations will remain open with staff, but the public counter will be closed each night from 9pm.
Eastern District Commander Superintendent Sandra Venables said a review of public counter opening hours had recently been undertaken and it had been confirmed that the number of people coming into stations after 9pm each night was negligible.
“We do not have a lot of people coming into stations after 9pm – and much of the time those visits are only for administrative or non-urgent matters. I would rather deploy my staff more usefully out in the community where they can prevent and respond to crime, thereby making our communities safer,” Ms Venables said.
The three stations have all been fitted with speaker phones in the front entrance areas for use by visitors who have urgent matters that need attending to. Instructions on how to use the push-button speaker phones have been placed on the front door and are in both English and Maori.
When activated the phones link directly with the Police Central Communications Centre and calls will be answered by a police operator. Local staff will then be dispatched to the incident if required.
Visitors with non-urgent matters are urged to visit the stations during the new opening hours.
Ms Venables said people with an emergency were more likely to ring 111 from their location, rather than coming to the police station. If people did visit the station in an emergency situation, they would still be able to contact police.
The stations would continue operating overnight with staff involved in duties mainly involving prisoners and arrests.
“Mobility has provided us with the means to get our staff out and about into the community, rather than being stuck behind desks in a station all night. I am sure the community would rather see more police on the street than have them back at the station filling out forms at the front counter,” Ms Venables said.
The move in Eastern District follows a national trend where stations of a similar size and population base, such as Tauranga, Rotorua, Porirua, Upper Hutt and New Plymouth, have all reduced their public counter opening hours at night. It was also indicative of a new philosophy where police were more visible in the community.
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