Lib Dems Call for Reopening of Ealing and Southall Police Stations
Study suggests closures have led to increase in violent crime
Cllr Connie Hersch says there is a correlation between station closures and rising crime in Ealing
August 29, 2024
The Liberal Democrat opposition in Ealing is calling for the reopening of two local police station after new research suggested a link between closures and increases in violent crime.
The study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies indicates that areas in the vicinity of stations that have been closed have seen an increase in more serious crime of 11%. The author says this is consistent with lower deterrence and police effectiveness, reduced clearance rates and reduced reporting of non-violent offences.
The closures came as a result of an estates report written when Boris Johnson was Mayor which recommended selling many police station sites due to cost pressures and increased online reporting of crime.
Mayor Sadiq Khan continued these disposals and the front counter of Southall station closed in 2017 and Ealing was shut in 2022. Over this period 70% of stations in the capital have closed and Acton now is the only police facility in the borough which takes crime reports from members of the public.
No figures are available to confirm that the trend of rising violent crime was observable in Ealing and Southall but the author of the report says that the rise is a persistent impact across different areas.
Officers in Ealing have told local councillors that it can take a whole shift to arrest, process and deal with the paperwork for a single suspect due to travel time.
Suspects are often transported to police stations further away such as Colindale or Heathrow. Local police officers say it can take two to three hours to do the round trip from Ealing to Colindale during peak hours.
Cllr Connie Hersch (centre) with police officers from Ealing
The report concludes that there has been a drop in police effectiveness with clearance rates down by 3.7% in areas that have lost a station due to a reduced ability to investigate and collect evidence to close cases.
Police station closures also discourage citizens’ cooperation with law enforcement and account for a 17% decline of the baseline reporting rate. This decline in reporting is associated with a reduction in respondents’ confidence in police effectiveness.
The Liberal Democrats have launched a petition as part of their campaign for the reopening of the station.
Liberal Democrat Councillor Connie Hersch said, “Liberal Democrats believe that there is a direct correlation between Labour’s police station closures and fewer police on our streets. We have seen an increase in crime and antisocial behaviour especially around our train and tube transport hubs and the Liberal Democrats have pledged to restore proper community policing and put bobbies back on the beat. Liberal Democrats will always put your safety as our priority, such as reversing Ealing Labour’s light dimming policy which put residents at risk.”
We have asked the Mayor’s office for a comment.
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