- Humberside Police
Infobox UK Police
name= Humberside Police
area= East Riding, North Lincolnshire
start= 1974
population= 1,140,200
size= 3,517 km²
officers= 2,252
title= Chief Constable
head= Tim Hollis QPM
divname= Divisions
divno= 4
stations= 31
HQ=Kingston upon Hull
budget= £158.1m
web= [http://www.humberside.police.uk Humberside Police]Humberside Police is the
Home Office police force responsible for policing an area covering parts of theEast Riding of Yorkshire and northernLincolnshire . TheChief Constable isTim Hollis QPM.It was created in
1974 as a merger of other forces under theLocal Government Act 1972 , along with the non-metropolitan county ofHumberside . It was a successor to theHull City Police , and part of the areas of theYork and North East Yorkshire Police , the oldLincolnshire Constabulary and theWest 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 theEast Riding of Yorkshire ,Kingston upon Hull ,North Lincolnshire , andNorth 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 theHome Secretary ,David Blunkett . [cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3860503.stm
title=Authority's statement in full
accessdate=2007-11-15
date=2004-07-02
publisher=BBC News ] The Home Secretary eventually obtained a court order suspending Westwood. [cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3860707.stm
title=Embattled police chief suspended
accessdate=2007-11-15
date=2004-07-02
publisher=BBC News ] The Authority had come under pressure to sack Westwood due to theSoham 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. [cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/4077080.stm
title=Police authority chief suspended
accessdate=2007-11-15
date=2005-06-09
publisher=BBC News ] [cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4436340.stm
title=Ex-police authority head charged
accessdate=2007-11-15
date=2005-11-14
publisher=BBC News ] Mr Inglis was cleared of all allegations in July 2006. [cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/5187612.stm
title=Ex-council chief cleared of abuse
accessdate=2007-11-15
date=2006-07-17
publisher=BBC News ]Proposals made by the
Home Secretary onMarch 21 ,2006 would have seen the force merge withNorth Yorkshire Police ,South Yorkshire Police andWest Yorkshire Police to form a strategic police force for the entire region. [cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/4829466.stm
title=Police merger plan is recommended
accessdate=2007-11-15
date=2006-03-21
publisher=BBC News ] 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 theHome Office . [cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6079944.stm
title=Humberside 'worst police force'
accessdate=2007-11-15
date=2006-10-24
publisher=BBC News ] PDF| [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/24_10_06_police.pdf] |1.06 MiB In 2007, its performance was considered to have improved, to 5th worst performing force in the country. [cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/7035407.stm
title=Police force sheds 'worst' label
accessdate=2007-10-10
date=2007-10-09
publisher=BBC News ]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 [ cite web|url=http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/performance-and-measurement/performance-assessment/assessments-2006-2007/humberside |title=Performance and Measurement |accessdate=2008-06-07 |date=2007 |publisher=Home Office ]
Police vehicles
Humberside uses a wide variety of vehicles, marked and unmarked.
ProViDa is the standard in-car video unit used; the new 1997Jai/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 onLiquified 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 rangeVolvo 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 centuryNOTAR technology to replace the tail rotor, making the aircraft more quiet than helicopters with tail rotors. [cite web|url=http://www.oscar99.org.uk/aircraft/page2.htm|title=Oscar 99 Aircraft|date=2002-06024|accessdate-2008-04-18|publisher=Humberside Police]References
External links
* [http://www.humberside.police.uk/ Humberside Police]
* [http://www.humberside-pa.org.uk/ Humberside Police Authority]
* [http://www.oscar99.org.uk/ The Home of Oscar 99] – Humberside Police Helicopter Support Unit
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