People will no longer be able to pop in and see a police officer in Brampton – but can in Penrith, as Cumbria Constabulary unveils changes to save it £300,000.
Brampton police station will no longer have a front counter service from tomorrow, but plans are in the pipeline to open a front counter at Penrith’s Hunter Lane station.
Changes will also be made to the opening hours of the front counters at Carlisle, Kendal, Barrow, Workington and Whitehaven while the front counters at Cockermouth and Windermere, mothballed since 2020, will remain closed.
Cumbria Constabulary said it was seeking to adapt to the changing demands of the public.
It said Brampton was closing because of the way people were interacting with the constabulary. A new neighbourhood policing model has been designed which means that there is a dedicated community beat officer for Brampton, a dedicated community beat officer for Longtown and two dedicated PCSOs that have a much smaller area to cover than previously.
The police station in Hunter Lane, Penrith, will have a front counter open to the public. Previously this had not been the case. The constabulary said it was doing this because significant investment had been made in Hunter Lane as a main deployment base with response, neighbourhood, CID and intelligence officers working from there. As a result, it was anticipated that demand for front counter services will be needed.
The constabulary said it had recruited an extra 169 police officers, which allowed it to strengthen several areas of the services it provided.
All of the stations affected, including those whose front counters will no longer be open, will remain fully operational and functioning stations from which police officers and police community support officers will continue to work and be deployed from, Cumbria police said.
The opening date for the front counter at Hunter Lane, Penrith, will be confirmed soon.
Detective Superintendent Dan St Quintin, of Cumbria Constabulary, said: “The constabulary is adapting to meet the changing behaviour of the public.
“In 2014, the constabulary saw its front counters utilised more than 100,000 times. Last year this number had fallen to around 13,000 – and a high proportion of those visiting front counters did so for a non-policing purpose.
“People are now less and less likely to seek to come to a police station to report a matter. This change in behaviour was accelerated by COVID-19, a period which also saw many people become more accustomed to communicating online.
“However, the constabulary is keen for those who still wish to speak to the police in person to have the option to do so. With the public not coming to us, we will go to the public.
“The constabulary is committing to implementing more face-to-face opportunities. Neighbourhood Policing Teams will be advertising opportunities to meet officers in person at police stations and out in the community, to discuss any concerns or issues you wish to raise.”
The changes are expected to result in considerable savings of around £300,000 – savings realised without the requirement for redundancies.
The Constabulary has consistently one of the best performing 999 response times in the country. Statistics published last month stated that Cumbria Constabulary were in the top five forces for percentage of calls answered in under 10 seconds.
Non-emergency call answering is also improving, with 92.5 per cent of non-emergency calls received in March answered in less than three minutes.
