police station

A suburban police station in San Bruno, California

A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.

Regional substations

J.C. "Buster" Court Public Safety complex in Stafford, Texas

Large departments may have many stations to cover the area they serve. The names used for these facilities include:

• Detachment for local facilities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Ontario Provincial Police
• District offices are used by the California Highway Patrol
• Districts are used by some urban police departments such as the Baltimore, Milwaukee, Detroit, New Orleans, Philadelphia police departments, Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia.
• Divisions are used by the Toronto Police Service, Los Angeles Police Department, Fort Worth Police Department, Houston Police Department, the London Metropolitan Police Service, and other urban police departments.
• Precinct or precinct house for regional facilities of the New York City Police Department, Memphis Police Department, Newark Police Department and other urban police departments in the United States.
• Substations are used by many departments, especially county sheriffs
• Police stations in India. A police station would typically be under the command of a Sub-Inspector. In case of a police station being the headquarters of a Police Circle, the Inspector's office would be clearly demarcated (and most likely in a separate building).
• Zones are used by some urban police departments such as the Atlanta Police Department
• Basic Command Unit are used by most British police forces.
• Kōban are small neighborhood police offices in Japan.

United Kingdom

An English police station: Wood Street station in Wakefield

The counry constabularies in Great Britain were previously organised by villages. Most villages of any size, including hamlets, had a "police house". Police houses in small villages were often staffed by a single uniformed Constable, with larger stations being staffed by more. Local police stations were grouped together under the command of a uniformed Sergeant, whose station was known as a "sergeant's station". Larger towns in the county constabulary areas had police stations staffed by a number of officers, often under the command of an inspector or superintendent, usually also commanding a sub-division or division respectively, and therefore giving the names of "sub-divisional station" or "divisional station" to their stations.

Organisation of police stations in the UK

Many British police stations have a blue lamp outside.

In the United Kingdom, police stations may have:

• Uniformed police officers who respond to 999 calls and provide community policing.
• Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) who patrol the community (England and Wales only).
• Traffic Wardens who enforce parking regulations.
• Crime Reduction Officers who are tasked with attending public functions, visiting households with advice and handing out items such as rapes alarms.
• A Firearms Enquiries Officer, responsible for firearms certificates, drugs and related duties.
• Station Reception Officers (SROs) who are in charge of the front desk and do administration.
• Fingerprinting and Identification Officers who deal with Criminal Identities for Archives.
• In Metropolitan Police stations, police cadets may help regular officers, PCSOs or any police staff.
• Special Constables, Sergeants and Inspectors will be present. A Special is a part-time unpaid fully-trained Police Officer with powers of arrest.
• Smaller stations usually have a number of Detective Constables (DCs) headed by a Detective Sergeant (DS), or in larger stations DCs, DSs and Detective Inspectors (DIs) are present, with the Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) in charge of the department.
• Most stations have holding cells where an arrested offender can be held overnight until escort to the court for sentencing.
• An Authorised Firearms Officer (AFO) may be present at the station if it is central to that operational area.
• Police stations also have kitchens to aid the officers during shifts.

Most city police stations use two types of police vehicle - response cars, which respond to 999 calls and carry a range of equipment to deal with incidents, and Panda cars, which are usually less-capable cars and generally used for community policing.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Police stations

• Custody suite
• Property room

References