| Merseyside Police | |
 |
|
| Logo of the Merseyside Police. | |
| Motto | Total Policing |
| Mission statement | War on crime, care for victims |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1974 |
| Preceding agencies | |
| Employees | 7,087[1] |
| Volunteers | 456[1] |
| Annual budget | £307.3 million[1] |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | Police area of Merseyside in the country of England, UK |
 |
|
| Map of Merseyside Police's jurisdiction. | |
| Size | 250 square miles |
| Population | 1,360,000 |
| Legal jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Governing body | Merseyside Police Authority |
| Constituting instrument | Police Act 1996 |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Constables | 4,933 (of which 456 are special constables)[1] |
| Police Community Support Officers | 407[1] |
| Agency executive | Bernard Lawson, Temporary Chief Constable |
| Basic Command Units | 6 |
| Website | |
| http://www.merseyside.police.uk/ | |
| Footnotes | |
| * Police area agency: Prescribed geographic area in the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
Merseyside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Merseyside in North West England.
The force area is 647 square kilometres with a population of around 1.5 million. As of March 2009 the force has 4,494 police officers, 2,221 staff, 442 police community support officers and 420 special constables.[2]
Merseyside Police is divided into six Basic Command Units (BCUs), one in each of the metropolitan boroughs that make up Merseyside, and two BCUs for the City of Liverpool. The BCUs are:
The force came into being in 1974 when Merseyside was created, and is a successor to the Liverpool and Bootle Constabulary (itself formed in 1967), along with parts of Cheshire Constabulary and Lancashire Constabulary.
The force operates under the oversight of the Merseyside Police Authority, which is made up of nine local councillors, three magistrates and five independent members.
Under proposals made by the Home Secretary on February 6, 2006, it would merge with Cheshire Constabulary to form a strategic police force. [1] This was later rejected.
Contents |
History
During the Caia Park Riots in Wrexham, North Wales on June 22, 2003, Merseyside Police along with Cheshire Police and West Mercia Police came to the assistance of North Wales Police, under mutual aid arrangements.
Chief constables
- 1974 - 1975 Sir James Haughton
- 1976 - 1989 Sir Kenneth Oxford
- 1989 - 1998 Sir James Sharples
- 1998 - 2004 Sir Norman Bettison
- 2004 - 2009 Bernard Hogan-Howe
- 2009 - present Bernard Lawson (Temporary Chief Constable)[3]
Vehicles
Merseyside Police has a wide fleet of Vehicles. Scientific Support vehicles are usually Peugeot Partner vans equipped with a high intensity roof mounted light which allows forensic examinations to be completed in all lighting conditions. Roads policing unit (RPU)vehicles are generally Vauxhall Vectras and Volvo V70 T5s ,in addition the RPU also employ a number Jaguar X-Types which are mainly equipped with Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR). The patrol cars for Merseyside Police are Ford Focuses and Vauxhall Astras. Unique vehicles within the force are the yellow vans. These are mobile CCTV and patrolling vehicles and the Peugeot Partner van is generally the vehicle used. In addition, yellow Mercedes Sprinter vans are the main protected vehicles. These are used by a wide number of departments, including Matrix and the Anti-Social Behaviour task force. The Mercedes Sprinter has onboard an ANPR system, a grille that drops down onto the front windscreen to help protect the officers from thrown missiles at public order incidents, and finally a mounted light on top of the lightbar to light up scenes at night. Off road vehicles used by the force include scrambler motorbikes and quad bikes to target anti-social behaviour in parks.
Departments
There are many different Departments that make up Merseyside Police. These include The Matrix disruption team and the Anti-Social Behaviour task force.
Matrix Disruption team
The Matrix Disruption Team led by a Chief Inspector, consists of syndicates made up of Inspectors, Sergeants and Constables. Each syndicate works with other Matrix units to provide the Force with a level two response to gun crime, faction based criminality and cash-in-transit robberies. They are the first response to any major large-scale disorder within the Merseyside force area. These officers are specifically trained to deal with a variety of disorder situations, ranging from small protests to large-scale crowd disorder.
Public Order is one of the main functions of the department and therefore all officers receive the required training and are subjected to rigorous training scenarios. Matrix has a number of Baton Gun trained specialist officers, consisting of two Sergeants and ten Constables.
The Matrix team also have specialist search teams and rope access teams. They use yellow Mercedes Sprinter police vans with special markings on the side to show they are Matrix.
Anti-Social Behaviour Taskforce
The Anti-Social Behaviour Taskforce deals with people who are alleged to be creating anti-social behaviour. They also make raids for drugs and known offenders who are alleged to be lowering the standard of life for the community. They use yellow Mercedes Sprinter police vans with special markings on the side to show they are used by the ASB Taskforce. They have different numbers on, which include QV0 + another digit (Units range from QV01 - QV05 with QV90 as the mobile police station). There are also an ASB Taskforce Peugot Expert vans, QV04 and QV05.
The unit was initially known as Axis, but the use of this name was dropped around the end of 2007.
Mounted Section
Merseyside Police Mounted Section has a long history within the Merseyside Police. It is the oldest Provincial Mounted section, formed in 1886 as part of Liverpool City Police. It is an integral part of the Operational Support Unit, and is based at Greenhill Road, Allerton, Liverpool.
The mounted section is an operational specialist section with a staff of 1 Inspector, 2 Sergeants, 24 Constables, 11 Civilian Stable Hands and 26 Horses.
The section provides neighbourhoods with an alternative response to reduce the incidents of crime & disorder, using an intelligence led approach, a tactical option in relation to public order & major incidents, as well as high visibility patrolling at football matches, rugby matches, race meetings and other special events.
Dog Section
Each area within the force has its own allocation of dogs and handlers who work alongside the neighbourhood patrol section.
There are currently 45 General purpose dogs in the force area. 16 of these have extended training for deployment alongside our colleagues in the firearms department.
Merseyside Police, like most forces, rely on the German Shepherd Dog for their general purpose police dog work. All general purpose work involves the dogs' marvellous sense of smell, several hundred times superior to that of a human. The dog handler takes advantage of the dogs' natural abilities to search for and detect human scent.
The force also utilises both Springer Spaniels and Labradors for their specialist detection roles; for example drugs and explosives. These are the preferred breeds as they have extremely high energy levels and are able to search for long periods. The force currently operates 29 specialist dogs to carry out these detection roles.
Air Support Group
Merseyside Police Air Support Group was set up in late 1989 in response to an increase in the number of high speed vehicle pursuits that were occurring after burglaries had been committed outside of the force area.
The early days saw the unit based at Liverpool Airport, but following an arson attack it was moved to a nearby army barracks. It is now based at RAF Woodvale in purpose built accommodation.
The aircraft and crew are available 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
Helicopter
The Air Support Group operates a Eurocopter EC 135 helicopter[4], which is based at RAF Woodvale near Formby. It was new in 2002 replacing a Eurocopter Ecureuil 2.[5] Like its predecessor it is known as Mike One, after the middle two characters of its call sign, XM11. It has also been allocated a "matching" aircraft registration, G-XMII.[6]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Merseyside Police |
See also
- Law enforcement in the United Kingdom
- List of law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom
- Table of police forces in the United Kingdom
- Mersey Tunnels Police
- Port of Liverpool Police
References
- ^ a b c d e http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/performance-and-measurement/performance-assessment/assessments-2007-2008/merseyside
- ^ http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/police-reform/Police-strength-Mar09?view=Binary
- ^ "Temporary Chief Constable takes up the baton" (HTML). Merseyside Police website. http://www.merseyside.police.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3857. Retrieved 2009-11-01.
- ^ Merseyside Police website - New Helicopter
- ^ Aeroflight - UK Police Aviation
- ^ CAA Aircraft Register GINFO Search
External links
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
