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A suburban police station in San Bruno, California

A police station (also called stationhouse) is a building which serves as the headquarters of a police force or unit which serves a specific district. These buildings contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles such as locker rooms, temporary holding cells, and interview/interrogation rooms.

Regional substations

J.C. "Buster" Court Public Safety complex in Stafford, Texas

Large departments may have many stations to cover the area they serve. The names used for these facilities include:

• Detachment for local facilities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Ontario Provincial Police
• District offices are used by the California Highway Patrol
• Division by the Toronto Police Service, Los Angeles Police Department and the London Metropolitan Police Service.
• Precinct or precinct house for regional facilities of the New York City Police Department and other urban police departments in the United States
• Substations are used by many departments, especially county sheriffs
• Police stations in India. A police station would typically be under the command of a Sub-Inspector. In case of a police station being the headquarters of a Police Circle, the Inspector's office would be clearly demarcated (and most likely in a separate building).

Great Britain

An English police station: Wood Street station in Wakefield

The county constabularies in Great Britain used to be organised on village lines.^{citation needed} Most villages of any size (and even many small villages and hamlets) had a police station, often called a "police house", which was staffed by a single constable, who lived there with his family.^{citation needed} The constable could be called out by the locals at any time of the day or night and during the day also patrolled the village and surrounding area on a bicycle. These local police stations were grouped together into sections under a sergeant, whose station was known as a "sergeant's station". This was usually a larger station in a large village or small town (one such example being Leyland police station, staffed by one or more constables as well as the sergeant; although in very rural areas it may have been just another single-officer police house. Larger towns in the county constabulary areas had police stations staffed by a number of officers, often under the command of an inspector or superintendent, usually also commanding a sub-division or division respectively, and therefore giving the names of "sub-divisional station" or "divisional station" to their stations.

Organisation of police stations in the UK

Many British police stations have a blue lamp outside.

In the United Kingdom, police stations may have:

• Uniformed police officers who respond to 999 calls and provide community policing.¹
• Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) who patrol the community (excluding Northern Ireland, and Scotland).¹
• Traffic Wardens who enforce parking regulations.¹
• Crime Reduction Officers who are tasked with attending public functions, visiting households with advice and handing out items such as rape alarms.¹
• A Firearms Enquiries Officer, responsible for firearms certificates and related duties.¹
• Station Reception Officers (SROs) who are in charge of the front desk and do administration.¹
• Fingerprinting and Identification Officers who deal with Criminal Identities for Archives.¹
• In Metropolitan Police stations, police cadets may help regular officers, PCSOs or any police staff.¹
• Special Constables, Sergeants and Inspectors will be present. A Special is a part-time unpaid fully-trained Police Officer with powers of arrest.¹
• Smaller stations usually have a number of Detective Constables (DCs) headed by a Detective Sergeant (DS), or in larger stations DCs, DSs and Detective Inspectors (DIs) are present, with the Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) in charge of the department.¹
• Most stations have holding cells where an arrested offender can be held overnight until escort to the court for sentencing.¹
• An Authorised Firearms Officer (AFO) may be present at the station if it is central to that operational area.¹
• Police stations also have kitchens to aid the officers during shifts.¹

Most city police stations use two types of police vehicle - response cars, which respond to 999 calls and carry a range of equipment to deal with incidents, and Panda cars, which are usually less-capable cars and generally used for community policing.

See also

• Custody suite

References