Police station
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A police station is a building which serves as the headquarters of a police force or unit which serves a specific district. These buildings typically contain offices, various accommodations for their personnel and their vehicles such as locker rooms, temporary holding cells, and interview/interrogation rooms.
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[edit] Regional substations
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
- Division by the Toronto Police Service, Los Angeles Police Department and the London Metropolitan Police Service.
- Precinct or precinct house for regional facilities of the New York City 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 H.Q of a Police Circle, the Inspector's office would be clearly demarcated (and most likely in a separate building).
[edit] Great Britain
The county constabularies in Great Britain used to be organised on village lines.[citation needed] Most villages of any size (and even many small villages and hamlets) had a police station, often called a "police house", which was staffed by a single constable, who also lived there with his family.[citation needed] He could be called out by the locals at any time of the day or night and during the day also patrolled the village and surrounding area on a bicycle. These local police stations were grouped together into sections under a sergeant, whose station was known as a "sergeant's station". This was usually a larger station in a large village or small town, staffed by one or more constables as well as the sergeant; although in very rural areas it may have been just another single-officer police house. 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.
[edit] Organisation of police stations in the UK
In the United Kingdom, police stations may have:
- Uniformed police officers who respond to 999 calls and provide community policing.[1]
- Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) who are tasked with general day to day patrol in the community, (Ecluding Ireland, and Scotland).[1]
- Traffic Wardens who enforce parking regulations.[1]
- Crime Reduction Officers who are tasked with attending public functions, visiting households with advice and handing out items such as rape alarms.[1]
- A Firearms Enquiries Officer, responsible for firearms certificates and related duties.[1]
- Station Reception Officers (SROs) who are in charge of the front desk and do administration.[1]
- Fingerprinting and Identification Officers who deal with Criminal Identities for Archives.[1]
- In Metropolitan Police stations, police cadets may be present helping regular officers, PCSOs or any police staff.[1]
- Special Constables, Sergeants and Inspectors will be present. A Special is a part-time fully trained Police Officer with powers of arrest.[1]
- 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.[1]
- Most stations have temporary holding cells where an arrested offender can be held overnight until escort to the court for sentencing.[1]
- An Authorised Firearms Officer (AFO) may be present at the station if it is central to that operational area.[1]
- Police Stations also have kitchens to aid the officers during shifts.[1]
Most city police stations maintain 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.
