Starting on 2 September, the main Groningen police station on the Rademarkt will experiment with closing overnight due to too few people coming to the location.
Translation by Traci White
In recent years, police departments nationwide have centralised and offered an increasing number of services online. According to Dagblad van het Noorden, the Groningen police have invested in increasing their presence on social media, and most reports can be filed through the police website. That has meant that fewer citizens come to the department in person.
The Groninger Internet Courant reports that the station, which is currently open 24 hours a day, is planning to experiment with limiting its hours from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The pilot programme with limited hours is slated to run from 2 September through 1 January, 2020, at which point the experiment’s effectiveness will be evaluated.
Representatives for the police department say that the agents can be used more effectively outside of the station during the overnight hour. Citizens who want to report to the station on the Rademarkt can still contact a police service centre via intercom where urgent help can be provided if necessary. The limited hours will not impact police response to emergency situations.
