New police station equipped with metal detectors

Prisoners hiding anything from knives to cigarette lighters will have little chance of getting away with it at the country's most modern police station.

The new $22 million North Shore Policing Centre, which opens on Sunday, will have the most modern metal detectors available, similar to the detectors used at airports and capable of picking up very small metal items, including plastic cigarette lighters with a very small metal content at the flint.

Area commander Inspector Les Paterson said the detectors could pick up metal items which could be slipped past smaller hand-held detectors.

He said cigarette lighters were a big problem for police when prisoners hid them to get them into cells.

"It is amazing where you can hide one if you really put your mind to it, in places we are really not supposed to be looking.

"It doesn't matter how hard you try to hide it -- you walk through one of these detectors and we will find it."

The multi-million dollar centre was being leased by police but Mr Paterson refused to say what it was costing the Government because of commercial sensitivity.

He said the trend to lease rather than own was more attractive to the Government.

The new police centre is on Parkway Drive in Mairangi Bay, near Constellation Drive.

A new park and ride public transport centre next door to the police centre would be fully open to the public from 7am on Sunday.

It would house about 200 staff and would operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Mr Paterson said police were renovating a building next to the old police station in Takapuna for use as a community police centre.

When that was done the old police station, described as a rabbit warren, would be sold.

The new police centre would be the base for the Criminal Investigation Branch, youth aid, and prosecutions.

Mr Paterson said there would also be working facilities for other agencies such as truancy, victim support, Child, Youth and Family, Strengthening Families and other partner groups.

He said the efficiency of an organisation depended on communications and that was difficult in the old Takapuna station where people were "dotted all over the place.

"From a managerial perspective I am immensely looking forward to the new premises".

Mr Paterson said with the rapid population growth of the last five years, North Shore City with a population of 215,000 was the country's fourth largest city .

The new police centre was close to State Highways 1 and 18 leading to Waitakere City. It was also within 5km of most calls for emergency services.

Planning for the new centre began in 1999 and it was designed to serve the accommodation needs of the North Shore police for the next 20 years, Mr Paterson said.

- NZPA