Lights out at Napier police station

The darkened foyer was not a sign the Napier police station had closed, Inspector Tania Kura said.

The sight of the public foyer of the Napier Police Station being plunged into darkness and closed at night will not be an uncommon one.

A member of the public who was driving down Station St just before midnight on Sunday noticed the foyer was in darkness and apparently closed up.

He sent a text to Hawke's Bay Today: "Napier Police station closed again" followed by the question "what's going on? I wasn't going there - I just noticed it was closed up."

The lights-out scenario was not a sign the station had shut up shop, Hawke's Bay Area Commander Inspector Tania Kura said.

There had been the "odd occasion" when the front counter/public access foyer was closed between the hours of 10pm and 6am.

It was due to operational requirements, Ms Turia said.

"But the station has still been operating, with staff deploying from there, and on most occasions there would still be someone inside the station managing our custody area."

Eastern Police District communications manager Kris McGehan said very few people went to a police station at night.

"The station doesn't close - it is just the front counter," she said.

The counter would remain manned during the day.

Occasional night closures would not affect the Hastings Police Station, where staffing levels were higher.

Ms Kura said automatic phones were being installed at the front of the station for the public to use to ring police directly to report a crime or get personal assistance - "exactly the same as they would from their homes".

She said the service provided at the public counter was no different to when someone rang police directly.

"If a member of the public comes to a station and the public counter is closed they should ring the normal Hawke's Bay police number of (06) 831 0700 or in the event of an emergency they should ring 111."

Ms Kura said it was important for the public to realise that policing was a 24-hour service "and with the benefits of increased use of technology and managing our deployment to where the demand is we can be more accessible to the community".

The man who spotted the darkened foyer said the public needed to be aware of the situation, and while he could see the police point of view he felt it was always more reassuring to see lights on in the front of a police station.