Police cells in Selby to close by end of month
Custody cells at Selby Police Station have been condemned to closure by the end of the month, it has emerged.
Selby
Persons arrested in the Selby area will no longer be processed in Selby after the axe is swung on October 27th. Instead, officers will ferry detainees approximately 12 miles to be held in the force’s larger Fulford station.
The controversial move follows an operational review by the force and is backed by the woman in charge of policing in North Yorkshire, Commissioner Julia Mulligan.
Proponents for the closure claim that handing suspects off to custody staff in York will free officers from hours of administrative work. This, they say, will enable them to return immediately to front-line policing duties on the streets of Selby.
But the move is likely to be seen by many as another backwards step for justice and crime prevention in Selby – a town that has already seen the closure of its Magistrates Court and a radical scaling back of the town's CCTV network over the course of the last four years.
Defending the closure, Commissioner Mulligan said, “Keeping a Selby custody facility staffed 24:7 - as we are obliged to do - is not the best use of the tax-payer's money. North Yorkshire Police has limited resources, and I want to see them focused on the things that really make a difference to local people and communities.”
Paul Kennedy, Assistant Chief Constable for the area added, “We have done our research, and we know this makes good operational sense. On average, Selby custody dealt with just one person a day last year, as the vast majority of arrested people - 86 per cent - are already taken to the custody facility at York. So whilst the closure of custody may sound dramatic, in fact there will be very little actual change to the way we carry out policing. The important thing to keep in mind is that we are as committed as ever to keeping a strong front-line service on the ground in Selby.”