Opening of new police and fire station will clamp down on Portsmouth crime, commissioner says

The new “state-of-the-art” facility in Northern Road is up and running after a £16m investment. Officers from different Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary teams will be based at the facility to tackle a range of incidents from the most serious to lower level anti-social behaviour.

Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones said she was delighted to see the facility open. She told The News: “This is a blue light hub, where we have a fire station and police station working together. I promised to open more stations and open front counters where we can, to connect the public better to their police service. This is an example of police working in localities to make communities safer.”

The new station will house the Eastern Police Investigation Centre team, originally working in Airport Service Road, Copnor. They tackle serious crimes - searching for wanted criminals - and carry out police raids. Officers from Missing Persons and neighbour teams will join them, with 65 personnel working at the location alongside PCSOs and specialist support staff.

They will be able to access improved IT and conference facilities, resource rooms containing equipment so they can respond to incidents quickly and briefing rooms for investigations. Ms Jones said their presence in Cosham will offer residents more reassurance, and make policing effective across the city.

“Portsmouth is really well covered with three geographically important police sites. The public should be reassured and will really see a difference. I’ve got a lot of response from the public as the hoardings have come down, reaching out and asking when it’s opening. There is genuine interest about this and I’m grateful to your readers and the public who have supported me in opening this station. Any criminals living in this area, beware, the police are literally seconds or minutes away.”

She added that investment into policing is paying dividends amid falling incident rates for anti-social behaviour and other crimes. The Conservative said the station and increased numbers will make sure lower impact crimes such as bike thefts will see resolutions and not be left unanswered.

“We have a really big recruitment drive going right now. The more police we have, lower-level impact crimes will be investigated more as we have more people to do it. When your bicycle gets stolen and you use it to go to work or school, it has a severe impact on you. That’s why it’s important that the police give due regard to those crimes. Crimes are classified as high, medium and low impact, but it depends on the individual and how they feel when the crime happens to them. It affects people in all different ways.”