Humberside Police
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Humberside Police | |
 |
|
| Coverage | |
|---|---|
 Humberside Police area |
|
| Area | East Riding, North Lincolnshire |
| Size | 3,517 km² |
| Population | 1,140,200 |
| Operations | |
| Formed | 1974 |
| HQ | Kingston upon Hull |
| Budget | £158.1m |
| Officers | 2,252 |
| Divisions | 4 |
| Stations | 31 |
| Chief Constable | Tim Hollis QPM |
| Website | Humberside Police |
Humberside Police is the Home Office police force responsible for policing an area covering parts of the East Riding of Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire. The Chief Constable is Tim Hollis QPM.
It was created in 1974 as a merger of other forces under the Local Government Act 1972, along with the non-metropolitan county of Humberside. It was a successor to the Hull City Police, and part of the areas of the York and North East Yorkshire Police, the old Lincolnshire Constabulary and the West Yorkshire Constabulary.
Since the abolition of Humberside in 1996, the local authority members of the Police Authority are now appointed by a joint committee of the East Riding of Yorkshire, Kingston upon Hull, North Lincolnshire, and North East Lincolnshire.
The Police Authority shot to the national headlines in mid 2004 when it refused to sack Chief Constable David Westwood despite instructions from the Home Secretary, David Blunkett.[1] The Home Secretary eventually obtained a court order suspending Westwood.[2] The Authority had come under pressure to sack Westwood due to the Soham Inquiry blaming in part failings in Humberside Police.
It returned to the headlines in 2005 when Colin Inglis, its chairman at the time of the crisis appeared in court charged with indecent assault.[3][4] Mr Inglis was cleared of all allegations in July 2006.[5]
Proposals made by the Home Secretary on March 21, 2006 would have seen the force merge with North Yorkshire Police, South Yorkshire Police and West Yorkshire Police to form a strategic police force for the entire region.[6] These proposals have since been 'put on hold' by the government.
The force has performed poorly for a number of years and became known as the Blunderside Police Farce. This was confirmed in October 2006, when the Humberside Police was named, jointly (with Northamptonshire Police), as the worst performing police force in the country, based on data released from the Home Office.[7][1]PDF (1.06 MiB) In 2007, its performance was considered to have improved, to 5th worst performing force in the country.[8]
In 2007 the strength of the force was
- Police Officers: 2,235
- Police Staff: 1,213
- Community Support Officers: 194
- Other Staff: 43
- Special Constables: 344
Budget 2006/07: £158.1m[9]
[edit] Police vehicles
Humberside uses a wide variety of vehicles, marked and unmarked. ProViDa is the standard in-car video unit used; the new 1997 Jai/ProViDa is also used too. The main vehicles used are:
Proton Cars - These are used for general patrol and by IRT (Incident Response Teams). The majority of the Protons are Impians but there are still some older Wira cars in use plus a few Gen2 models. Humberside Police won the top award in the National Energy Efficiency Awards by running the vast majority of its fleet on Liquid Petroleum Gas. Most Protons are dual fuel, running both LPG and unleaded petrol.
Volvo Cars - The Roads Policing (Traffic) Section use mainly Volvo cars. These are top of the range Volvo V70 T5 models. Many are fitted with ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) systems. The newest Volvo cars in the fleet have been marked with new style Battenburg graphics in yellow and blue (as opposed to the familiar orange stripe with blue edges).
Mercedes Sprinter Vans - A batch of new Sprinter vans was purchased in 2006 to replace the previous generation of Sprinter Vans which were almost a decade old. These vans are used for Public Order and crowd situations as well as for transporting prisoners.
Subaru Impreza STi - The Roads Crime Section (RCS) has several Subaru Impreza vehicles. These are specially adapted models to enable Humberside Police's elite Roads Crime Section to pursue even the fastest vehicles.
Specialist Vehicles - The fleet also consists of many specialist vehicles which are used for specific purposes. These include an Underwater Search vehicle, a bullet-proof Land Rover Defender, a Leyland Prison Bus, plus marked Police recovery vehicles.
MD Helicopters MD Explorer 902 aircraft – An aerial support section operates a helicopter equipped with video and infra-red surveillance, and the late 20th century NOTAR technology to replace the tail rotor, making the aircraft more quiet than helicopters with tail rotors.[10]
[edit] References
- ^ Authority's statement in full. BBC News (2004-07-02). Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
- ^ Embattled police chief suspended. BBC News (2004-07-02). Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
- ^ Police authority chief suspended. BBC News (2005-06-09). Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
- ^ Ex-police authority head charged. BBC News (2005-11-14). Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
- ^ Ex-council chief cleared of abuse. BBC News (2006-07-17). Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
- ^ Police merger plan is recommended. BBC News (2006-03-21). Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
- ^ Humberside 'worst police force'. BBC News (2006-10-24). Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
- ^ Police force sheds 'worst' label. BBC News (2007-10-09). Retrieved on 2007-10-10.
- ^ Performance and Measurement. Home Office (2007). Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
- ^ Oscar 99 Aircraft. Humberside Police (2002-06024).
[edit] External links
- Humberside Police
- Humberside Police Authority
- The Home of Oscar 99 – Humberside Police Helicopter Support Unit
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