Police Station closures in BOCU’s from 2010 to 2018

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.21.021807

I note you seek access to the following information:

Request 1
1. Please could you provide, for each London Borough Operational Command Unit (BOCU):
1a) The date of any Police Station closures in the BOCU in the period January 2010 to June 2018, and the name of the closed Police Station (“Police Station” being defined as an operational building with a front counter);
1b) The total number of Police Stations in the BOCU, on a month-by-month basis for the period January 2010 to June 2018; and
1c) The average response time for 999 calls graded as i) ‘Immediate’ and ii) ‘Significant’ [by crime type], on a month-by-month basis for the period January 2010 to June 2018. To the extent available, please segment this data by crime type reported.

For those BOCUs that were included in the pilot of the consolidation of BOCUs into BCUs, I only require data for the period from Jan 2010 to the date on which that pilot commenced.

Where specific subsets of data requested are not available, please provide the data in the narrowest segmentation available, and/or from the first date after January 2010 from which the data is available.

2. Please describe the process by which 999 calls are processed, graded and allocated to officers.

Request 2
Please could you provide, for each London Borough Operational Command Unit (BOCU):
2a) In the period January 2010 to June 2018, the date of closure of any police buildings/facilities in the BOCU that operate as a patrol site or other ‘base’ for officers who would respond in the event of an incident report being made (hereafter “Base Sites”), and the name of the closed Base Site;
2b) the total number of Base Sites in the BOCU, on a month-by-month basis for the period January 2010 to 30 June 2018; and
2c) The number of officers employed in the BOCU, on either a month-by-month or annual basis for the period January 2010 to June 2018. Insofar as possible, please include only ‘frontline’ officers who could be expected to respond to a reported criminal incident (e.g. following receipt of a 999 call).

For those BOCUs that were included in the pilot of the consolidation of BOCUs into BCUs, I only require data for the period from Jan 2010 to the date on which that pilot commenced.

Where specific subsets of data requested are not available, please provide the data in the narrowest segmentation available, and/or from the first date after January 2010 from which the data is available.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

With reference to Q1(a)&(b), please find attached Excel Spreadsheet which shows closure information for all Front counters during the requested time period. Please note that this information is only recorded on an annual basis and not monthly. We can therefore only provide information for the end of each calendar year.

The date of closure is the known date that the Front Counter closed to the public. Prior to 2013, the exact day that the Front Counter was closed was not recorded. In many instances, the building itself either remained in use for some time after public access ceased or is still currently in use. Where known, the precise closed date is given in Column B; if not known, the year of closure is given in Column A.

Please also note that we do not record closure of Front Counters by BOCU, these have been recorded by Local Authorities. Individual Front Counters are annotated as either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in Columns C – L to indicate that the Front Counter was either open or closed respectively at the end of each calendar year from 31/12/2009 until 21/12/2018. There may also have been instances where certain buildings within one Local Authority may have been used by a different geographical BOCU. The information has been sorted by Local Authority.

With reference to Q1(c), please find attached Excel Spreadsheet with the requested data.

With reference to Q2, please note that this information is already available in the public domain. I have included a link below for your reference:
999 - Procedures and processes

With reference to Q2(a),(b)&(c), please note that this information is not currently recorded. However, there is some similar information already in the public domain that you may find useful and I have provided a link below for your reference:
IDSS Support Services Team Member - Geographical Area Posting Preferences.pdf