Police looking for accommodation in Chiswick

The empty Chiswick police station, which is about to be demolished

Realisation has dawned that a neighbourhood police team needs to be based in the area it’s policing

Chiswick’s neighbourhood police team is looking for a base in Chiswick.

Since the police station closed in 2021 their base has been in Acton. When The Chiswick Calendar spoke to the late Sgt Jim Cope three years ago, he told us how hard that had made things for them. They have to carry all their gear around with them. They carry a radio and body camera, handcuffs, a baton, a torch, medical gloves and a ‘PAVA’, a pepper spray.

When they arrest someone, the whole process takes officers much longer than it used to because of the lack of proximity of a police station. Acton is a long way to go to sit down and use your laptop if you’ve made an arrest in Chiswick High Road or down by the river.

He told me they had to wait for a van to come and pick them up and may have to go to a custody suite in another part of London because there was often not one available anywhere nearby.

READ ALSO: What policing in Chiswick is really like – Sergeant Jim Cope and PC Durr-e-Maknoon Tariq

It has now been acknowledged that officers need a base nearby. It has been recognised in the London Plan that neighbourhood policing teams should have a base that is no more than 20 minutes’ walk from where they are operating, Chiswick’s current sergeant, St Gareth O’Donnell told The Chiswick Calendar.

So they are now actively looking for somewhere to have a ward office in Chiswick.

CGI of new development being built on the old police station site

Offer of secure space from Birchgrove fails to materialise

Former Chiswick councillor Ranjit Gill thought he had solved the problem when he introduced the local police to Birchgrove, who offered them space in the development they are building on the site of the old police station.

The offer was made before they went to the Planning Committee with revised plans for the development, and it was popular in Chiswick. Cllr Gill introduced Chief Executive of Birchgrove Honor Barratt to Police Superintendent Anil Puri to discuss it. They had several meetings and Honor told us:

“Anil and Jim came to meet me and explained people in Chiswick were feeling underserved because of the lack of police presence.

“What they need is a safe cycle store, secure lockers and somewhere secure to charge their body cams, ipads and walkie talkies or mobiles. Crucially they wanted somewhere private where they could shut the door and write a report.”

READ ALSO: Police offered a base in the old police station in Chiswick

READ ALSO: Old police station development in Chiswick approved by Hounslow Council’s Planning Committee

Metropolitan Police property services department told her they would need a room to which only the police had fob access.

“We haven’t worked that out yet, but I don’t see it as an insurmountable problem”, she said.

What Sgt O’Donnell has told The Chiswick Calendar now is that they were offered a “shared space” which was not suitable. So it’s back to the drawing board.

READ ALSO: Birchgrove announce start date to demolish Chiswick police station

READ ALSO: Kori Construction tells Chiswick police station neighbours they will do their best to minimise disruption

Modern office space library picture; photograph Austin Distel / Unsplash

Wanted – secure office space with storage, and separate access 24-hours a day

They have seen several premises around the High Road, he tells me, but it is not easy to find somewhere to rent within their budget which offers private access 24 hours a day.

The kind of space police elsewhere have used is office space above a supermarket.

“But the kind of problem you can run into is you’re out with a prisoner and find you can’t get back in because the shop is closed and the building has been locked up”.

That would be inconvenient. Not to mention embarrassing.

Over the summer their logistical problems have been magnified because the custody suites in Acton have been out of action for a couple of months.