New Croydon custody suite set to open

The state-of-the-art Windmill Road site will take in all offenders for the borough, with 14 cells at Croydon station and 11 at South Norwood station closing on April 23.

The CID teams, which deal with offences such as burglary and robbery, will be joined by the Safer Neighbourhood Teams for Broad Green and Selhurst, as well as the custody staff and forensic teams.

Temporary chief inspector Chris Green, who is overseeing the move to the new site, said: "This is an excellent facility and exciting development.

"For a start we have 16 more cells, we now have all our detainees in the same building as our investigating officers which will save on time and money, and have a purpose built facility to cater for modern policing needs."

New features include a decontamination room to deal with offenders sprayed with CS spray wash basins in each cell, holding rooms for detainees during busy periods and four see-through doored cells for vulnerable people who need to be observed at all times.

A virtual court area has also been installed The building has taken just over a year to complete and is the third major site in Croydon borough.

A review is underway by the Metropolitan Police of all facilities and critics fear the South Norwood station could be set to close.

Chief Insp Green said: "No decision has been made surrounding South Norwood, everything is being looked at.

"When the borough gets a new facility like this you have to look at every asset across the borough."

He also admitted the new suite would not have a front desk and members of the public would not be able to report crimes there.

South Norwood police station will continue to have a front desk, Operation Withern, set up after the riots, and forensic staff will continue to work out of the facility.