Station closures a short-sighted move, says police federation chief
Officers are spending an entire shift dealing with just one prisoner due to police stations being "spread so thin" around the region.
West Midlands Police Federation chair Richard Cooke said productivity levels had "nosedived" because officers were having to travel miles out of the way to deal with crime.
He said community policing had been badly impacted by the closure of dozens of police stations over the last decade as part of the force's controversial estates programme.
And the fact that custody blocks were often many miles away from where arrests took place was eating up officers' valuable time, he said.
Sgt Cooke told the Star that Walsall was a "prime example" of an area that was losing out. He said: "Walsall is a major town yet it hasn't got its own station or a custody block.
"Although there is one in Wolverhampton officers in Walsall are told to go to Oldbury, which means after they make an arrest they have to drive miles out of the way.
"This means it can take a whole shift to deal with one prisoner so it is not surprising that productivity levels have nosedived.
"The stations spread so thin. There's an opportunity cost and these areas like Walsall are losing out."
In recent years West Midlands Police has moved to a system of centralised custody blocks having closed down many of the local stations with custody facilities.
The region's main custody blocks are operational in Oldbury and Perry Barr, while an 'eastern' block is earmarked for Coventry. Wolverhampton also has facilities on site.
Sgt Cooke added: "It was done to save money but in my view it was shortsighted. They neglected to factor in the time spent ferrying prisoners to and from different areas.
"Officers are spending so much time off patch. What is the cost of that?"
A spokesperson for West Midlands Police, said: "Our modern custody suites are purpose-built facilities which replaced local custody blocks which were in desperate need of repair and would have cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to make them fit for purpose.
"We will continue to work in partnership to ensure future estate changes are based on the operational and financial needs of our force to enable us to become more efficient and effective at preventing crime and protecting the public."
