How G4S work alongside the police – a case study from Lincoln

IMHO There should be a moratorium on all outsourcing. Shamefully the comedian who runs G4S is on £820,000 per year but we are told we cannot raise his tax above 45% on everything he earns over £150k per year in case he plies his innumerable talents elsewhere. The public servant who would earn a fraction of this for doing the same job is seen is a less favourable light for doctrinal reasons. The whole matter is a disgrace. 

Thank you for raising a
number of concerns. We hope we can address some of them and put some of your
supporters’ minds at ease.

Firstly, we would like
to say that we are in the very early stages of exploring a planning proposal
and we are just starting a consultation process. We have already engaged with
Nettleham residents and we have a really good idea of the concerns they have.
We accept there is much more to do in terms of engaging with both Nettleham and
Lincoln residents and we are committed to doing that.

Having met with City,
County and District council representatives, we are now starting our
consultation with Lincoln
residents. There will be a public meeting at the Drill Hall at 6pm on July 31,
where we will lay out our proposals.

The Police Authority
will then formulate a comprehensive consultation strategy and engage with the
public on a regular basis.

It is important to
stress that the decision on whether or not to go ahead with any of these
proposals will not be made by Lincolnshire
Police. The new Police and Crime Commissionaire will make the decision after
his or her election in November. So the person who will decide the way forward
will be the person the people of Lincolnshire
choose.

We would like to clarify
a few of the points you have made. You are right to say Lincolnshire Police Authority has signed a
10-year £200m deal; with the option of an extension should we want one.

The motivation was
simple – by contracting a firm to deliver some of our back-office work for us
to achieve a chunk of the 20 per cent savings the Government has asked us to
make – we could avoid a significant police officer reduction. It means we can
maintain frontline policing.

G4S has been contracted
to deliver support services and is very closely managed by Lincolnshire Police and the Authority. G4S
does not and will not own any of our estate. Should the incoming PCC decide to
build a new station in the city and sell West Parade Police Station, it will be
a capital receipt for Lincolnshire
Police and the money will go into the policing pot.

The Policing support arm
of G4S, which is a huge global operation, has had no involvement in the Olympic
security contract and since starting their contract with us in April they have
performed solidly.

Now we would like to
clarify our proposals for the future of policing in Lincoln.

Should the PCC make the
decision to close West Parade, build or buy a building for a new station in the
city and move traffic and custody cells to the edge of town,  everything
the law-abiding public uses West Parade Police station for will be facilitated
at the new City Centre police station and there will be the same number of
officers policing Lincoln City.

The term “shop front”
has caused some concern. We accept that this is misleading. It was used with
good intentions a while back to try get across the fact that we want the new
location to be bang in the City Centre, as close to the High Street as
possible. It has led to an inaccurate perception that we will reduce policing
in the city. 

The reality is that the new premises, whether a new build or in an
existing property, will still house around 30 to 35 patrol, neighbourhood and
front desk officers and a number of patrol vehicles – it will be a police
station and it will house the same level of policing resources that we have to
cover Lincoln City now.

What we are proposing to
move to the edge of town, in plain language, are the cells, people whose job
isn’t focused on Lincoln such as admin workers and the traffic cars that
service the wider city, West Lindsey and North Kesteven, which we believe need
to be closer to the ring road to improve our response times.

It may come as a
surprise to know that 60 per cent of the prisoners handled by Lincoln
Police station do not come in from the City Centre – but the wider Lincoln area, West Lindsey and North
Kesteven. For that reason we believe the cells are not in the
right place – they need to be on the edge of town. It is a similar story for
the response vehicles.