Nostalgia is a thing of the past.

I hear that the borough of Enfield are to have a new base on an industrial estate. It will provide a centralized hub for patrol officers and operational vehicles. A number of other units may relocate. Apparently the previous stations on the borough will remain open to the public.

This is likely to be the start of a number of boroughs doing the same.

I am sure there are carefully worked out business plans, cost/benefit analysis and efficiency gains to argue that this is the way forward.

But I think that this unemotional business approach goes against the grain for most police officers.

I think we are, in the main, traditionalist at heart and identify with the 'nick' we work from.

The solid brick built building with the old blue light outside.

The older ones stand rock solid in the middle of the communities they police.

I know they can be a warren of corridors and offices with a couple of Portakabins in the pokey back yard ( and probably breach who knows what bits of new legislation ) but they have housed generations of coppers doing earlies, lates and nights and I think that tradition carries through with those who work there.
I have found that the best atmosphere and morale were with these Teams working from these police stations.
We deliver a service...a very important one.... but we are not DHL... and I think we are further losing touch with the people we police if we disappear into an bleak impersonal estate.

I hope I see my days out working from a police station and not a business park.