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Article The Long Goodbye: A Note on the Closure of Rural Police-Stations and the Decline of Rural Policing in Britain Robert Smithà and Peter SomervilleÃà Downloaded from

Abstract This research note documents the recent controversy surrounding the closure of police stations in the UK between 2007 and 2012. It examines the statistics as reported in the press and discusses the rhetoric used in the debate http://policing.oxfordjournals.org/ to draw conclusions about how the closure of police stations will affect rural policing and rural crime.

Preserving the distinctiveness of reassurance. Major themes of this distinctive cul- rural policing tural identity is the ‘Constable (in the) Countryside’ Rural policing in Britain has a distinctive cultural (Yarwood and Cozens, 2004; Mawby and Yarwood, identity (Young, 1993; Yarwood and Cozens, 2004; 2010) and the eulogization of the ‘rural bobby’ (Smith, 2010). The rural bobby is now very much

Mawby and Yarwood, 2010). In particular, at Georgetown University on July 12, 2015 Yarwood and Cozens remark on how police culture a part of the rural idyll (Mingay, 1989). in rural settings is distinctly different to that of Rural policing has been a feature of policing his- urban police culture. An integral part of the archi- tory in England and Wales since the Rural Policing tecture of rural policing is the police station as Act of 1839 (also referred to as the Rural symbol of public order. Indeed, the ubiquitous sta- Constabularies Act of 1839) and in since tion plays a major part in the architecture of public the Police (Scotland) Act 1857[for a discussion on reassurance (Millie, 2010, 2012) particularly in the the development of policing in Scotland, see the rural domain. Fleming and Grabosky (2009) argue works of Carson (1984, 1985). Carson argued that that as the policing role expands in Western demo- the social forces giving rise to the conditions under cratic societies, there is pressure to meet the de- which the institution of police could emerge was mands of an increasingly expectant public as the related to the development of capitalist relations ‘thin-blue-line’ becomes even more stretched due in Scotland necessitating the need for rural as well to the stresses of meeting public demand for as urban policing]. During the last decade, various

ÃRobert Smith, Reader in entrepreneurship and SIPR Lecturer in Leadership, Business School, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK. E-mail: [email protected] ÃÃProf Peter Somerville, Professor of Social Policy, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, LN6 7TS.

Policing, Volume 7, Number 4, pp. 348–358 doi:10.1093/police/pat031 ß The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions please e-mail: [email protected] Decline of Rural Policing in Britain Article Policing 349 scholars have warned of the demise of the ‘country to which persons under arrest are brought’. bobby’ caused by the closure of rural police However, a police-station can vary in size from a stations on efficiency and effectiveness grounds headquarters building to a small house or shop- (e.g. Neyroud, 2001; McLaughlin, 2008; front. In some areas smaller single room buildings Waddington and Neyroud, 2008; Mawby and known as ‘police boxes’ may still be in service. Yarwood, 2010; Smith et al., 2013). Waddington Police stations are defined by their size and and Neyroud (2008) highlight the closure issue functionality. For ‘rural’, we use the definition pro- linking it to performance management. We vided by the as a settle- review the literature to provide supporting empir- ment normally containing less than 3,000 people ical evidence highlighting this important topical (The Scottish Government, 2012). However, Downloaded from subject. villages can vary greatly in size because of the build- ing of rural housing developments. A village of 3,000 inhabitants can double in size and still remain a village. A rural police station is simply a Reviewing the literature on rural http://policing.oxfordjournals.org/ policing and rural police stations police station located in such a settlement. The literature on police stations, whether urban As the subject of this note relates to Great Britain, or rural, is sparse (thankfully, evidence can be the review of the literature is confined to this con- gleaned from official documents, the web, and text (There are practical reasons for this approach from sources such as documents in the possession in that although there is some material on rural of The Police History Society. Moreover, much of policing in the USA and Australian contexts, there the knowledge in this section was gleaned by one of are so many different variables in respect of the the authors during interviews with rural police of- scale of rurality. However, it should be noted that ficers). It is helpful to begin with a discussion on the at Georgetown University on July 12, 2015 the closure of rural police stations is a phenomenon history and sitting of rural police stations. County which is affecting Northern Ireland and Eire too as Constabularies in Britain were organized on a vil- evidenced by numerous press reports. This is clearly lage basis and until the 1960s, most villages of any an emerging trend and may not be a purely British size less than 3,000 residents had a police house or problem). Although it deals primarily with the police station situated in them. Village stations closure of rural police stations, such closures are were often staffed by a single uniformed constable not confined to rural areas. However, in the and became known as ‘single stations’. Each police countryside the damage is more visible and more division had a number of such stations grouped difficult to reverse. We begin by defining what we around a larger station in a small country town mean by the terms ‘police station’ and ‘rural’. In the with a sergeant in residence (these were referred Collins online dictionary (http://dictionary.refer- to as ‘sub-divisional stations’ or ‘divisional stations’ ence.com or http://Collins.com), a police station depending on size). is defined as ‘the office or headquarters of the However, from the early 1900s some stations police force of a district’. Historically, police sta- were also sited in the open countryside near busy tions were also referred to as ‘station-houses’ be- road junctions. The deciding factor revolved cause often police officers lived on the premises. around the transport technology of the time and However, this was not an arrangement whereby upon how long it would take an officer on foot/ the house served as a police station (as in the cycle to travel between stations. Cars changed the Japanese Ko¯ban). Dictionary.com further elabor- dynamics of policing by reducing response times to ates, referring to a police station as premises incidents and reports of crime making the country- ‘...from which police officers are dispatched and side more accessible. The advent of police panda 350 Policing Article R. Smith and P. Somerville patrol cars in the 1950–60s changed this formula attention to the inexorable closure of rural police drastically leading to the first round of wholesale stations, along with the demise of the ‘rural bobby’ police station closures as many villages lost their and the deskilling of the rural policing function in ‘local bobby’ for good. Mawby and Yarwood Scotland. (2010, p. 64) refer to this process of ‘gradual’ clos- Millie (2012) articulated the importance of the ure. Since then closures have occurred on oper- police station within the architecture of public ational grounds based on the decision of a Chief order and community safety. He suggested that Police Officer. Indeed, Yarwood and Cozens police stations communicate emotive messages to (2004) suggest that senior police managers often the public and that through an understanding of justified closures of rural police stations or under semiotics it is possible to argue that police stations Downloaded from resourcing of rural policing by alluding to the idyl- contribute to public reassurance, because members lic misrepresentation of the countryside as crime- of the public attach meanings or ‘emotive readings’ free. However, what differentiates current closures to the stations as symbolic structures. However, from previous ones is that they are primarily aus- Millie stresses that in order to understand this, we http://policing.oxfordjournals.org/ terity measures to prune budgets. Neyroud (2001) need to rethink what message existing stations spoke of the closure of police stations as a burning actually communicate, because buildings can issue and that the phrase ‘hard-to-reach’ groups in mean different things to different people. He sug- police consultation (originally code for ‘ethnic gests that in an urban environment a particular po- minorities’) expanded to include some rural resi- lice station may be read as an intimidating fortress, dents. The studies of McLaughlin (2008) drew whereas others are potentially public buildings attention to the logic of unintended consequences where the public are welcomed. Thus, to the inhab- of a performance management framework in the itants of a rural village their local police station may

UK—namely plans to close traditional ‘blue lamp’ be read as a symbol of reassurance, whereas to a at Georgetown University on July 12, 2015 police stations on grounds of economy and effect- bureaucrat it may be an unnecessary expense. iveness. McLaughlin pointed to the remarkable lack Millie suggests that this has important implications of academic research and strategic thought on the in relation to the current tranche of police budget role of the police station per se. He considered the cuts. paradox of a hyper-centralist performance manage- Smith et al. (2013) discussed the effect of the ment regime coinciding with a shift to hyper-local- closure of rural police stations in Britain on the ist neighbourhood-driven policing and described rise of rural crime, concluding that the closures the closing of police stations as a suitable illustra- were but part of a wider reduction in police tion of the contradictions that plague British poli- budgets, which has been well publicized [this fact cing. He criticized the Home Office’s performance has been well covered in the media through articles management regime for systematically disassem- by journalists such as Sawer (2007) and Slack bling the ‘structures-of-feeling’ and traditions asso- (2008) who have commented on the outcry from ciated with the ‘Dixonian policing model’. He the public and often the police themselves]. accused the authorities of asset-stripping multi- Although this reduction is itself part of a wider functional ‘blue lamp’ police stations with no government austerity agenda, this agenda has to understanding of their cultural and symbolic be balanced against the needs of the individual importance, especially their contribution to the le- communities who rely upon their local police sta- gitimacy of the police in ‘the-eyes-of-the-public’. tion. From this review it is apparent that rural poli- He argued that, as a consequence, public legitimacy cing is an emotive, socially charged subject that was downgraded at the same time as technical extends far beyond the practicalities of everyday capabilities were enhanced. Smith (2010) drew policing. Decline of Rural Policing in Britain Article Policing 351

Concerns surrounding police station Conservative Party. In Scotland the Con- closures in rural areas servative Party blames The Scottish National Cuts in rural police services are a common theme in Party and the heritage of Labour for the closures the works of Mawby (2002, 2004, 2007, 2009; and McLaughlin (2005) also blames Labour]. Mawby and Jones, 2004). In conducting the Indeed, McLaughlin (2005) blamed the process 2000–04 Crime Surveys in Cornwall, Mawby on New Labour, new localism and the democratic (2002, 2004) found that these cuts involved either renewal of police accountability. McLaughlin reducing the services that a police station provided argued that the closures were brought about by or closing it altogether. Where a station was closed, the introduction of new layers of complexity to telephone calls from members of the public were the governance of locality which only served to ex- Downloaded from transferred to a distant station [from the Scilly acerbate the existing drives for efficiency and effect- Islands, e.g. they were rerouted to Exeter (Mawby, iveness driven by performance management 2002)], and the public had to travel further to access regimes in general and the Best Value Directive fa- voured by the Labour Party. However, these claims an alternative station. Where a station remained http://policing.oxfordjournals.org/ open, it was only for limited hours, and even have never been fully tested. For McLaughlin the when in use by police it was not always open to disappearance of the ‘local bobby’ and the closure the public. Mawby (2004) argued that lack of a of police stations are symptomatic of how commu- local station was one of the main criticisms of nity concerns were of secondary importance to rural policing. police chiefs and police authorities working to The closure of rural police stations must be seen Home Office performance scripts. There is, then, in the wider context of the seemingly inexorable a contradiction, or possibly a tension, in New closure and withdrawal of services in a wider rural Labour’s approach, which has continued under context (Farmer et al., 2003) and the changes in the Coalition Government, namely between neigh- at Georgetown University on July 12, 2015 service provision in rural areas (Higgs and White, bourhood policing, which emphasizes crime pre- 1998). These have seen the closure and removal of vention, public reassurance and visibility, and doctors–surgeries, small-town hospitals, churches, crime fighting, which emphasizes detective work pubs, banks, and shops (Jones, 2002; Pincott, 2004; and catching criminals. Paddison and Calderwood, 2007) in favour of Official arguments for the closure of police sta- multi-service outlets (Moseley et al., 2004; Hope tions can appear convincing because statistics may et al., 2000). Francis (1999) argues that the closure demonstrate that the extent of crime in rural areas of the village police station undermined popular is lower than that in urban areas. It is widely imaginings of the rural as safe and predictable. believed that antisocial behaviour is less prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas. The annual stat- There is little evidence apart from the anecdotal, istics of recorded crime in Scotland suggest that however, to show that the presence of police sta- crime rates in rural areas are significantly lower tions delivers safety and predictability [but note than in urban areas. For example, in Northern Millie (2012) above). Constabulary, the total crimes and offences recorded per 10,000 is 466, compared with 694 in The politics in play and a Scotland-wide average of 598 per It is difficult to assess the role played by politicians 10,000. The chief arguments for closure derive from in the closure of police stations because political police organizational and operational requirements parties often blame each other for them and are based on the PESTEL (political, economic, [a number of concerns have been raised by polit- social, technical, environmental and legal) frame- icians and in particular, most recently, by the work, which contains many factors expressing 352 Policing Article R. Smith and P. Somerville managerial priorities such as economies of scale Matters (2011), rural areas in England and Wales and hierarchical control. already have fewer police officers, special constables Even if some closures can be justified on and police community support officers (PCSOs) grounds of short-term economies such as meeting per head of population than urban areas which is government budget cuts, there are long-term at variance with the claims of Mawby and Yarwood consequences to consider. A Conservative Party (2010, p. 61) but may serve to illustrate the speed of (D. McLetchie, personal communication) commu- change since 2010. Figures obtained by the Rural nique´, for example, suggested: ‘Keeping a police- Crime Matters (2011) indicate that there was one station open that is rarely visited and taking officers police officer for 1,037 people in rural areas in off the street in order to do so may not always be the 2011–12, compared with 581 people in urban Downloaded from best use of public funds. Nevertheless, police-sta- areas. Similarly, in 2011–12, there was one PCSO tions are important to local communities and the for 4,794 people in rural areas compared with 3,530 sheer number of closures is worrying’. Although the people in urban areas. In the same year, there was public now communicate more with the police ser- one special officer for 3,335 people in rural areas http://policing.oxfordjournals.org/ vice by telephone, mobile phone and internet, an- compared with 3,004 people in urban areas. In any ecdotal evidence suggests that some rural residents case, the figures cited by Mawby and Yarwood were still prefer speaking directly to an officer or member for specific English counties such as Lincolnshire of staff. It seems clear that the closure of rural sta- and Warwickshire with a heritage for advocating tions can have greater impact than the closure of rural policing. A feature of both the Scottish urban ones, because alternative facilities are often Conservative and Countryside Alliance pleas is much further away in rural areas and response that they are influenced partly by strength of feeling times slower. With station closures, police officers and partly by appeals to people’s sense of distribu- have to travel further to access IT facilities, com- tional fairness, tradition, community, and perhaps at Georgetown University on July 12, 2015 plete paperwork, etc., resulting in more time spent by the precautionary principle that it is best to keep on travelling and less on ‘policing’. Similarly, sus- stations open because one never knows what harms pects (and solicitors who have to be present) have may occur if they are closed. Countryside Alliance to travel further for questioning and detention. All Chairman, Barney White-Spunner, is concerned this obviously adds to the cost of policing, particu- that policing and crime in rural areas will become larly in rural areas, thus casting doubt on the a forgotten priority and that there will be a further claimed savings arising from station closure. reduction in police numbers and spending in rural The main argument against closure, at least in areas. He called for proper consideration of careful rural areas, is that it is almost impossible to reverse planning so as not to disadvantage those in the if the premises are sold. Although interestingly, in countryside, remarking “These figures will make May 2013, at the behest of a newly elected Police worrying reading for country people, many of Commissioner, did reverse a whom have found themselves victims of crime”. decision taken in 2011 to locate rural officers in What is missing from the political debate, however, controversial hubs where they were located to is solid information about how the closures are ac- cover wide areas (see the coverage at North Wales tually affecting rural policing, and the views of the Police Hubs closure welcomed; available at: http:// public on this issue. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23193595 for fuller details). The Scottish Conservatives believe that The deskilling of the rural police officer local police stations have an essential role in pro- The closure of rural police stations is linked to a moting local policing and should be protected as far wider deskilling of rural police officers over the past as possible. Also, according to the Rural Crime decade (Smith, 2010). Rural community policing Decline of Rural Policing in Britain Article Policing 353 skills are neither taught at the Scottish Police on the reporting of journalists and information College, nor by the former National Police located via the internet, which can be sensationalist Improvement Agency. In the UK, there is no official and morally laden in a judgmental sense. The news- definition of rural crime and no framework for how paper accounts, although highlighting the closure it should be recorded. If the police do not record or of police stations focus on rising crime rates and define crimes by location of rurality, however, it is fear of crime (Slack, 2008) and sensationally warn unlikely that they will even be aware of the extent of that the crisis and in particular the scale of the the problem. One argument often used by the budget cuts is leaving the police on ‘a metaphorical police themselves is that police forces are commu- cliff edge’ (Hughes, 2012). Hughes was reporting nity orientated and police communities according the words of Tony Melville, the Downloaded from to local needs. Yet, this is contradicted by the clos- of Gloucestershire Police. Additionally, the data ure of police stations and the removal of officers to used in this request in relation to Scotland is urban areas. Furthermore, in England and Wales, based upon FOI Request Methodology. The Scottish Conservative Party submitted an FOI the Association of Chief Police Officers has a port- http://policing.oxfordjournals.org/ folio for rural crime headed by a Chief Constable request and shared this information with the but its sister body in Scotland does not. This is an researcher [the FOI asked all former Scottish important distinction because the rural policing police forces (eight) for the numbers of police sta- portfolio in England and Wales, therefore, has an tions closed in the past 5 years; and the numbers of advocate with an interest in the subject area and police stations which have had their opening hours because of this rural policing theoretically has a significantly reduced (i.e. those that have lost 24-h more effective voice. There is clearly scope for im- cover status or which have moved from a full time provement here. to a part time basis), in the past 5 years]. It is also of note that the factual basis for the data in the press at Georgetown University on July 12, 2015 reports was derived from FOI reports submitted by Methodology individual journalists. We attempted to merge the data from these various sources but in the absence One of the major problems in conducting research of reliable official statistics it is not possible to con- for this note has been that in attempting to obtain duct a conclusive analysis. We acknowledge this data, it is not possible to obtain one set of official weakness in our methodology. These factors led statistics that cover the whole of the UK/Great to our decision to write a research note to highlight Britain so they had to be obtained from various this important topic to allow us to provide evidence sources. Frustratingly, we were forced to treat via documentary methods. Scotland, England, and Wales as separate entities because of issues of a historical, legal, and political The figures and the findings nature (e.g. Scotland has an independent legal According to Ensor (2012), since 2000, approxi- system and laws). This leaves room for statistical mately 1,017 police stations have been closed in error and misinterpretation. Thus, to obtain details the UK, the majority of which have been in rural of the stations closed, the authors used several areas. The rhetoric used by Ensor is strident in that methods. First, using documentary research meth- she trumpets the ‘End of the Bobby on the beat’ as a ods (Scott, 1990) we made a search of the internet third of police stations close. She remarked for documents and press articles on the closures. ‘Hundreds of thousands of residents living in Obtaining concise, correct and up-to-date official rural areas will soon be left without a local station statistics on the closure of police stations for the and will have to report crimes to officers based whole of the UK is difficult. One often has to rely miles away’. One of the interesting features on 354 Policing Article R. Smith and P. Somerville press reporting of the closure of rural police sta- appreciation it might be possible to determine tions relates to the emotive rhetoric used. whether this represents a slowing down or speeding Although Ensor’s report is largely factual up of the trend. However, reliable figures for indi- rather than rhetorical, it plays on public fears be- vidual closures ‘year-by-year’ are simply not avail- cause even if rural police stations are closed then it able in order to establish the true facts. does not literally mean that it is the end of the We can however reliably comment on the bobby on the beat in those areas, but that the Scottish closures. Between 2007 and 2012 the model of policing has changed. According to the in- former Dumfries and Galloway Police closed formation obtained from the FOI request, between three stations (these were Portpatrick, Langholm, the years 2007 and 2012 in Scotland, 56 police sta- and Locharbriggs, all of which are rural); the former Downloaded from tions were closed and 23 had reduced opening Lothian and Borders Police closed three (these were hours imposed on them; of those closed, 31 Fauldhouse, Mid-Calder, and Newcastleston, (55%) were in rural areas (Scottish Conservative which are all rural); the former Central Scotland Party, FOI request, 2012). However, policing, par- Police closed two (they were Stenhousemuir and http://policing.oxfordjournals.org/ ticularly rural policing is not just about statistics, it Denny; the former is a rural station); the former is also about public reassurance and community closed 10 [the fact that the then policing. To be fair, not all of the closures are net largest single police force in Scotland could not losses as there is also a noticeable trend to open new (or would not) provide names of stations or details police stations to correspond with where the on reduction in hours of stations is of concern be- majority of the perceived demand for policing is cause, although predominantly an urban force, sited. Interestingly, this is usually in urban areas Strathclyde does include Argyll, the majority of and many of them are larger headquarters build- the Inner Hebrides and . With Scotland ings. Unfortunately, there are no centralized, pub- now being a single police force, there is a very real at Georgetown University on July 12, 2015 licly available figures for the balance in terms of risk that policing will become increasingly centra- numbers opened or closed. Nor is there a readily lized and less localized because the urban crime available figure relating to associated savings or fighting focus of Strathclyde will likely pervade costs incurred. the new force for some time to come]; the former It is, therefore, very difficult to make sense of the Police closed four (these were Kinloch statistics of police station closures, given the split Rannoch, Monifieth, City Centre, and between the Scottish and England and Wales figures Methven. Of these, only Dundee City Centre was and the fact that there is an apparent lack of open- an urban station); the former Grampian closed four ness and transparency behind the release or non- [these were Peterculter, two in Aberdeen (High release of the figures. Many of the closures are only Street and Silverburn), and Cullen. Of these only discussed at a local, parochial level in the press. Cullen is a rural police station, although Peterculter However, one can argue that they are a cumulative is a suburban area in the countryside]; and the loss in that they are closing at a steady rate. There former closed 26, none of does appear to be a cyclic nature to them in that the which was located in an urban area (these were trend began in the 1960s, was revisited in the 1980s, St Margaret’s Hope, ; Conon Bridge; and the current closures began in the early 2000s. North Kessock; Helmesdale; Foyers; Newtonmore; We calculate that in the current cycle on average Cannich; Kinlochleven; Uig; Castletown; Reay; 65–70 police stations close each year in the UK. Golspie; Scalloway; Dunrossness; Lybster; However, trying to examine it statistically is of lim- Bettyhill; Evaton; ; Ardersier; Drumna- ited value because it is primarily a qualitative com- drochit; Beauly; Spean Bridge; Broadford; Barvas; munity policing issue. Through a greater statistical Carloway; and Ness. Northern was one of the most Decline of Rural Policing in Britain Article Policing 355 remote forces in Scotland in terms of land mass and to 2003), mobile police offices, the opening of tem- distance between stations). There are no figures for porary police stations in village halls, and other the former Constabulary. An FOI request community-driven models such as farm, horse, located on the internet revealed that other than shop, and pub watches]. Some forces such as the relocation of two call points to Local Council Lincolnshire have pioneered the use of rural intel- Service Offices, there have been no closures or ligence officers and rural community beat officers, opening of police stations in Fife since 2006. and the introduction of the wildlife crime officer Furthermore, the former Lothian and Borders has been a welcome innovation. However, such in- have reduced hours at 19 rural stations (these novations are introduced piecemeal and the advan- were Newbattle, Gorebridge, Penicuik, Bonnyrigg, tages are in danger of being lost due to the financial Downloaded from Loanhead, Musselburgh, Tranent, Prestonpans, pressures brought about by the recession and public Haddington, Armadale, Whitburn, Broxburn, spending cuts [for a discussion of the effects Galashiels & Blackburn; Westerhailes, Drylaw, of austerity on policing, see Her Majesties Craigmillar, Oxgangs, Corstorphine, and Edin-

Inspectorate of Constabularies (2012)]. There is http://policing.oxfordjournals.org/ burgh Airport); the former Central Scotland force also a tendency towards the introduction of reduced the hours at one, which is open only when quasi-policing methods in rural areas using village staffed; finally, the former Tayside force reduced orderlies and wardens (Merritt and Dingwall, the hours at two stations. The figures discussed 2010). above do not cover the practice of ‘ghosting’ police stations where the station is not officially closed but there are no operational officers based Conclusion there. This practice is often used where no public consultation has been carried out and there will While it could be argued that the closure of most at Georgetown University on July 12, 2015 likely be a public outcry. Such stations are only British police stations has been for operational rea- used when operationally necessary as in the case sons, or in answer to an increased demand for cost of a major incident or crime in the area. The sta- savings, the net result is the loss of a community tions appear on the official role of the force but are resource and a move towards a different model of not operational. More closures are imminent. The policing that has not been properly planned. different systems of policing in Scotland and in However, the way we, as a society interact with England and Wales obscure the real figure and the police has changed; we are more likely to con- thus fail to provide the information necessary for tact them via the web or by email, as well as by a healthy public debate. phone, and less likely to visit a police station. The closure of a rural police station has a sym- Developing innovative new policing bolic effect as well as an operational one (Millie, models 2012). Many of the officers who formally policed The closure of rural police stations has not been the rural areas are moved to urban policing envir- planned in conjunction with other measures in re- onments where their knowledge and skills are lost lation to innovative policing. To correct this, there to their rural communities. The closure of police needs to be a planned and implemented increase in stations impacts on the number of police officers the number of innovative policing practices [see actually policing the rural areas and results in the Smith et al., 2013, for a discussion on the role of loss of core rural policing skills. Parish Constables, Rural Special Constables, Village Since the Rural Policing Act of 1839 and the Bobby schemes (such as the Police (Scotland) Act 1857, rural policing has Village Bobby Scheme which operated from 2000 been an integral part of the framework of policing 356 Policing Article R. Smith and P. Somerville in Britain as we know it. However, the changes withdrawal of policing services from the country- discussed herein have resulted in potentially irre- side before it is too late to reverse some of the more versible changes in the way policing is carried out. damaging consequences [otherwise we may be Rural policing is a specialized and under-appre- heading for a ‘Constable(less) Countryside’]. ciated activity, which is increasingly under threat. Mawby (in Mawby and Yarwood, 2010) remarked What is disturbing is that the closure of so many that the balance of Special Constables/PCSOs/regu- rural police stations has been done without public lars was higher in some rural areas than in urban consultation. It is clear that delivering effective areas, which appears to contradict the withdrawal rural policing will prove increasingly difficult in thesis but then a lot has changed since 2010. There the future. is perhaps a need to reintroduce a policy similar to Downloaded from There are obvious limitations to this exploratory the Rural Policing Fund which operated between note. Although the discussion has been confined to 2001 and 2006 to improve the visibility and acces- Britain, there is scope for extending future research sibility of police in the countryside (Mawby and to include Northern Ireland and Eire because both Yarwood, 2010, p. 83). This would allow for the http://policing.oxfordjournals.org/ are undergoing similar patterns of closure (Burke, development of new innovative models of rural 2013; FitzGerald, 2013; see also the discussion/blog policing to ‘offset’ the damage caused by the clos- at http://www.crimetalk.org.uk/reviews/articles/ ures. Legislative changes to working practices have 910-closing-rural-stations-and-crime-prevention- also impacted on the resourcing of police man- in-ireland.html for further details). The closure of power but it has to be borne in mind that, once a rural police stations and the withdrawal of police station has been closed it is unlikely that it will ever officers and resources from the countryside, con- be reopened to provide a return of service to the ducted in the manner of a ‘long goodbye’, must be community. Closing police stations is not the only addressed urgently before irreparable damage is possible strategy. It is also worth noting that at Georgetown University on July 12, 2015 done. Police stations must be viewed by politicians according to statistics released by the National and bureaucrats in their proper context as symbols Farmers Union (NFU) these closures are occurring of ‘community policing’ (Millie, 2012) and not as at a time when rural crime is increasing annually irrelevant in operational and fiscal terms or as ‘obs- year on year (NFU, 2011). tacles to reform’ (McLaughlin, 2005, 2008). There The introduction of a Britain-wide policy on have been repeated warnings over the years from rural crime and policing would perhaps be helpful spokespersons from The Countryside Alliance as while still maintaining the strengths and positive well as from policing academics, including features of the separate policy frameworks. This is McLaughlin (2005, 2008), Mawby and Yarwood of vital importance because all the recent changes in (2010) and Smith (2010), but these appear to respect of rural policing discussed herein have have been ignored. Mawby and Yarwood (2010, occurred at a time of great organizational change. p. 77) argued that an already patchy provision of For example, on 1 April 2013, the eight former rural services was being endangered by the closure Scottish forces became one force, known as Police of many rural police stations in the previous 10 Scotland. There are still 43 individual territorially years. As yet these dangers have neither been stipu- based Police Forces in England and Wales, albeit lated, nor publicly debated. There is scope for fur- that they now have an additional tier of governance ther studies both to determine the extent of the and accountability in the form of elected Police problem and to understand the social issues and Commissioners. Thus, because of these governance their consequences. issues there is the potential for the recent changes to There is, perhaps, a need for a rethink on the exacerbate the already existing two-tier system of closure of police stations and the resulting rural policing in Britain. It is problematic in that Decline of Rural Policing in Britain Article Policing 357 constituents in one part of the country receive a telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9150425/ End-of-bobby-on-the-beat-as-third-of-police-stations- different level of service from those in another close.html (accessed 25 October 2013). part. 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