Cheshire Constabulary

Cheshire Constabulary
Cheshire Constabulary
	Logo of the Cheshire Constabulary
Motto	Be safe feel safe
Agency overview
Formed	1857
Annual budget	£177M (2011–12)
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction*	Police area of Cheshire in the country of England, UK
	Map of police area
Size	905 square miles (2,340 km2)
Population	1.03 million
Legal jurisdiction	England & Wales
General nature	Law enforcement; Local civilian police;
Operational structure
Headquarters	Clemonds Hey, Winsford
Constables	2,013
Police and Crime Commissioner responsible	John Dwyer, (C)
Agency executive	Simon Byrne , Chief Constable
Local Policing Units	1
Facilities
Stations	22
Website
	www.cheshire.police.uk
Footnotes
	* Police area agency: Prescribed geographic area in the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction.

Cheshire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the English unitary authorities of Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton (including Runcorn, and Widnes) and Warrington. The force is responsible for policing an area of 946 square miles (2,450 km²) with a population of roughly 1 million.

The Chief Constable of the Cheshire Constabulary since 2014 is Simon Byrne. He was the Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police from 2009 to 2011 and the Assistant Commissioner for Territorial Policing in the Metropolitan Police Service from 2011 until his appointment in late 2014, taking over from David Whatton by unanimous approval by the Cheshire Police and Crime Panel in late February 2014.^[2]

The Deputy Chief Constable is Janette McCormick. The two Assistant Chief Constables are Guy Hindle and Mark Roberts.^[3]

History

A constabulary was first formed under the Cheshire Constabulary Act 1852.

The first Chief Constable was Captain Thomas Johnnes Smith, late of the Bedfordshire Militia. The first full Cheshire Police Committee met at the Crewe Arms Hotel, Crewe, on 3 February 1857 and the new Cheshire Constabulary was officially formed on 20 April 1857.^[4]

The first Headquarters was established at 4 Seller Street, Chester. In 1862 this office was removed to 1 Egerton Street, Chester and remained there until 1870, when it was removed to 113 Foregate Street. In 1893 the Court of Quarter Sessions approved the building of a new Headquarters which was erected at 142 Foregate Street and designed by John Douglas, at a cost not exceeding £2,000. This continued to be used, together with the adjoining buildings, until 1967, when a new purpose-built Headquarters was opened at Nuns Road, Chester. This building served the Constabulary until 2004 when the Headquarters building moved to a purpose-built complex at Clemonds Hey, Winsford.^[4] In 1965, the force had an establishment of 1,359 and an actual strength of 1,329.^[5]

It was proposed by the Home Secretary on 6 February 2006 that Cheshire should merge with the Merseyside Police, to form a strategic police force,^[6] but these proposals were later abandoned.

The Museum of Policing in Cheshire preserves and researches the heritage of policing in the county.

Governance

Since 15 November 2012 the Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner is John Dwyer. The police and crime commissioner is scrutinised by the Cheshire Police and Crime Panel, made up of elected councillors from the local authorities in the police area. Before November 2012 the Cheshire Police Authority was the police governance.

Chief Constables

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Thomas Johnes Smith (1861 census)
Peter Fahy (2002 - 2008)
David Whatton (2008 - 2014)
Simon Byrne (2014 – Present)

Organisation

Force structure

Before 2004, six divisions existed based on the district/unitary council areas:

In late 2004 the structure was changed with three Areas, known as Basic Command Units (BCUs). Each BCU is headed by a Chief Superintendent.

Northern Area, covering Warrington and Halton Unitary Areas
- Runcorn
- Warrington Central
- Warrington Town Centre
- Warrington East (Risley Police Station)
- Warrington South (Stockton Heath Police Station)
- Warrington West (Penketh Police Station)
- Widnes
Eastern Area, serving the unitary area of Cheshire East
- Congleton (Alsager, Congleton, Middlewich and Sandbach Police Stations)
- Crewe
- Knutsford
- Macclesfield
- Nantwich
- Wilmslow
Western Area, serving the unitary area of Cheshire West & Chester
- Chester Inner (Police Office, Town Hall)
- Chester Outer (Blacon Police Station, Chester)
- Ellesmere Port and Neston
- Northwich
- Western Rural (Dragonhall, Mickle Trafford and Frodsham Police Stations)
- Winsford

Basic command unit structure

Each area has several specialist teams, namely:

Local Policing Units (LPUs), each with local Neighbourhood Policing Teams and investigation teams. The LPUs concentrate on responding to emergency/non emergency calls, preventing and detecting local crime and targeting offenders, building contacts in the local community, resolving problems by working with local organisations and individuals, and being visible and accessible.
Criminal Investigation Departments (CID) detect serious crime
Customer Service Desks ensure incidents are dealt with promptly and the public get a better service
Public Protection Units deal with Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Harassment, Honour-based Violence, Elder Abuse and Child Protection.
Intelligence Units and Pro-active Policing Units target persistent criminals
Partnership Development Units
Custody Investigation Teams(CIT), consist of a combination of interviewing Police Officers and Civilian Staff members who interview persons detained in the Custody Suite suspected of committing an offence.

Headquarters-based teams

To support the BCUs, several centralised teams operate from the headquarters:

Central Roads Policing Unit
Centralised Crime Recording Bureau
Contingency Planning/Events Coordinators
Force Major Investigation Team
Specialised Support Units

Road policing

The Cheshire road system is made up of 3,417 miles (5,499 km) of highway. The constabulary is responsible for policing one of the longest stretches of motorway in Britain. The force patrols 214 miles (344 km) of the M6, M62, M53 and M56 motorways, which has 23 interchanges and 4 service areas. The M6 motorway across the Thelwall Viaduct carries 140,000 vehicles every 24 hours. Delays and incidents on the motorway can have a severe impact on the economic life of the entire North West Region.^[7]

Creamfields

Cheshire Constabulary is responsible for policing the annual Creamfields dance and music festival that takes place over the August bank holiday weekend every year at Daresbury in Halton, close to Runcorn and Warrington.

Air operations unit

Since December 2001 Cheshire Police have operated a Britten-Norman Islander fixed-wing aircraft, registration G-CHEZ. This model of aircraft is used worldwide in a variety of roles. It is particularly suited to police aviation as it is able to carry a wide range of equipment and stay airborne for long periods of time. This equipment allows it to operate during the day or night, in most weather conditions. It is cleared for flight in cloud and bad weather, but the majority of police operations require visual contact with the ground. If required, it can carry up to six persons.

The aircraft is operated by a team of civilian pilots, four police observers and one sergeant ensure the aircraft is available all year. The aircraft is used to conduct a wide range of policing work providing emergency responses to incidents involving threat to life, commission of crime and searching for missing persons. It also conducts deployments for non-crime searches, scene management at incidents and video evidence gathering.

On 27 February 2009, the Constabulary confirmed that the Home Office had agreed to jointly fund the purchase of a new £1 million Eurocopter EC135 aircraft, to be operational 24 hours a day.^[8]

On 18 July 2011, the North West Air Operations Group (NWAOG) was launched. The NWAOG is a regional collaboration between five forces and police authorities. The service dispatches aircraft from a regional command desk to incidents across Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside and North Wales.

The five forces in the North have four helicopters, based at four different locations throughout the North West, providing a service anywhere in the region, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

With 24-hour cover, the collaboration will enable the five forces to cope better with demand, with efficient use of all four helicopters, whilst enabling forces to make further savings and maintain resilience across the region. This is a move away from the concept of having one helicopter serving one region, to adopting the identity of one unit with support provided to all five forces

The collaboration allows for considerable savings, while offering an improved air support service. Benefits of the arrangement include the facility to have the closest helicopter deployed quickly to any incident and if there are two incidents in the same force area, then two helicopters can be deployed as necessary.

Collaborations

Cheshire Constabulary is a partner in the following collaborations:

Crime statistics

Cheshire Constabulary's crime statistics for recorded crimes are:^[9]

	April 2005 – December 2006	April 2006 – December 2007	Percentage Change
Burglary (dwelling)	3657	3333	−9%
Burglary (other)	4960	4566	−8%
Theft from vehicle	6382	5472	−14%
Theft of vehicle	2645	2195	−17%
Violent offences	14942	14038	−6%
Other offences	40524	38575	−5%
Total crime	73110	68179	-7%