Surrey Public First - Surrey Police - With You Making Surrey Safer

Putting the Surrey Public First

As part of our pledge to put the Surrey Public First, we are constantly seeking ways of improving our service and getting the most out of our resources. With this in mind we are asking members of the public to help us find a greater range of venues at which they can meet their neighbourhood officers.

Would it be helpful to be able to speak to your Safer Neighbourhood Team officers at a dedicated Surrey Police meeting point in your local shopping centre? To do all the things you can do at a Surrey Police station, but at your town hall or library instead? Or are there other potential meeting places that you can think of?

We are consulting with you to find out how we could improve accessibility to our Safer Neighbourhood Teams and other services.

Why are we doing this?

Surveys carried out over the past month show that many people are not using their local police stations. Surrey Police wants to work with the public to ensure that more convenient locations are found to maintain and improve face-to-face meetings with the neighbourhood policing team currently working out of old police buildings, some of which are not open to the public.

Retaining old police buildings across the force costs £2.4 million a year with the average cost to the force of £82 per visit – the equivalent of three hours of a police officer's time. In comparison the vast majority of residents contact Surrey Police by telephone with 2,629 calls received on average per day at a total running cost to the force of £7 per call. Under the proposed changes to our buildings, the force is looking to save the cash equivalent of £52 million over the next ten years.

No police buildings will be closed until a range of meeting places have been set up and until Surrey Police Authority agree any changes.

Savings made by the closure of these costly police stations and their replacement with more convenient locations will enable the force to recruit up to 200 extra police constables.

Invisible policing

Our Safer Neighbourhood Team officers are the most visible on the streets of Surrey, but there is a lot more going on behind the scenes. Click here to discover the responsibilities and areas of work of our other units, departments and specialist teams.