Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones talks about the new Petersfield Police Station with The Petersfield Post.
Copyright: Michelle Monaghan/Tindle
Copyright: Michelle Monaghan/Tindle
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00:00I've made a commitment to the public across Hampshire in the Isle of Wight, including
00:03Petersfield and the surrounding area, that I'm going to give them more police officers,
00:06greater police visibility and be able to get into a police station, come into a front counter
00:11and speak to a police officer if you need to.
00:13So this was the former Barclays bank site in Petersfield Square. When Barclays made
00:18the announcement they were moving out about 18 months, two years ago, I found out the
00:21freehold was owned by East Hampshire District Council. At that point I made an approach
00:25to the council and said look, I'm really interested in buying it. We don't want empty
00:29high streets and empty shops, so I want to put a police station back in Petersfield.
00:34I was disappointed the previous police station had been closed years ago. I went to school
00:37in this area, I know the area really, really well. And so yeah, I've set about making sure
00:42that we can buy the building, get it converted and reopen it for the people of this town
00:46and the surrounding areas.
00:47I know we've chatted before, well first big question actually, before I even go into that
00:52is when is it going to open?
00:54Well the opening is going to be in June. I was hoping it would be the beginning of May
00:57but there was a large concrete, substantial concrete block found in the ground floor that's
01:03had to be completely broken up and removed to be able to put in the drainage. The old
01:08building just next door to it is actually listed and it used to be all part of the Barclays
01:12Bank so we've had to separate the utilities. There's been a couple of delays, it's been
01:15pushed back by about five weeks, which means the opening will be in June. And the front
01:21counter will be open, I'm really pleased. There'll be CID based here, neighbourhood
01:25policing teams, we've got car parking round the back for all the police vehicles which
01:29is essential for a police station. And importantly we'll have the town centre teams who are dealing
01:35with the shoplifters and really trying to protect the retailers and businesses in and
01:38around Petersville.
01:39And I think when people do see people openly shoplifting it makes them feel unsafe in their
01:44local communities. We know that all the shops are giving advice to their staff to say don't
01:48apprehend shoplifters because you could be injured and it really is a job for the police.
01:52It's one of the things that I've really pushed the Chief Constable on over the last nine
01:55to ten months. He's set up shoplifting task forces, I've funded that for him to do that.
02:01And in the budget that I announced two weeks ago that starts on the 1st April, there'll
02:05be 90 more police officers being recruited over the next year, which means that we will
02:09have the highest number of police officers that we've had in over a decade.
02:12So as I say, neighbourhood policing teams that are currently based in Penn's Place.
02:16As you know, East Hampshire District Council are moving out of Penn's Place and the site's
02:19being demolished. So we knew we had to find a new site here for neighbourhood policing.
02:24My commitment was to get the police onto the high street and make them visible for the
02:27public. Now the front counter staff will be sat there. If people are not coming in and
02:34it's not a busy day, they are there processing all the crimes that are coming in online.
02:39So they will be looking through the crimes, classifying them. There's lots of other work
02:42they are doing to support the force and to help with the crime allocation. They're not
02:46just literally sat there on the off chance that 20 people might come in a day.
02:51And also the people that sit on the front counters, they're not police officers, they're
02:54police staff members. They're in a slightly different role. They don't have the powers
02:56of arrest. And in addition to that, through court bail and police bail, there are people
03:02who are under investigation or perhaps sentenced and it's part of their sentencing requirements.
03:07They have to report either daily, weekly, sometimes two or three times a week into a
03:12police station.
03:13At the moment, if you live in the middle of the East of Hampshire area, you'd have to
03:17go either to Basingstoke or to Havant to do your signing on. And for some people who don't
03:22have their own vehicle, who are reliant on public transport, it could take you almost
03:26a day to get to and from one of those locations, which is just not acceptable. So actually
03:30there's a real operational need to have a really good, prominent police base here. And
03:34in terms of the opening, don't quote me on this, I think it's six days a week, but we
03:38will confirm that when we open the site in June.
03:41The Contact Management Centre, as we call it, they're handling the 101 and the 909 calls.
03:45Things weren't great when I became the police commissioner in 2021. So I've opened a brand
03:49new call centre in the East of the county. Our other ones are all around Southampton.
03:53We've got two in the Southampton area. We've employed another 85 to 90 staff. And now our
03:59101 is one of the fastest in the country. Our phone lines this week are being answered
04:03in under one minute, 20 seconds. And the treble nines have always been good anyway. So yeah,
04:08we have really, really turned that around. And I'm really grateful to the chief constable
04:11and his senior leadership team who've really put a lot of effort into that. Absolutely.
04:16Like I say, I've just announced 90 more police officers to be recruited over the last year.
04:20The 75 I announced this time last year, they're just in the process of recruiting them now.
04:25That is 815 more police officers that I have funded and paid for in conjunction with the
04:29government over the last three and a half to four years. So as I say, we've got the
04:33highest or we will have the highest number of police officers on record in a decade once
04:37we get to these extra 90. We need young people. We need people from all sorts of backgrounds,
04:41religions, ethnicities. We need, you know, particularly, you know, we want to get more
04:45women working in policing as well. So if you're interested, whether it be as a police officer,
04:49or you want to train to be a CSI, that's a crime scene investigator, or you want to work
04:53in the call centre answering the emergency calls, whatever it is, please go to the Hampshire
04:58and Isle of Wight Constabulary website, have a look under vacancies or jobs, I think it's
05:01called, and you'll see all the information there. But yeah, please, I hope it does inspire
05:05young people. It is, and I'm actually speaking on a brilliant panel next Wednesday, just
05:09the day ahead of the International Women's Day, with one of our local MPs, with a couple
05:13of business leaders, I think someone from BT as well. I'm all into International Women's
05:18Day. I'm really trying to demonstrate. I mean, look at me, I'm the first female Police and
05:21Crime Commissioner in Hampshire. I was the first female leader of Portsmouth City Council.
05:25So you know what, there's no glass ceiling for women anymore.