Humberside Police

Humberside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing The East Riding of Yorkshire including Hull and northern parts of Lincolnshire including Grimsby and Scunthorpe.

The chief constable since 2017 is Lee Freeman.

History

Humberside Police was created in 1974 following a merger of previous forces under the Local Government Act 1972, along with the non-metropolitan county of Humberside.

Proposals made by the Home Secretary on 21 March 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. These proposals were later scrapped.

Following the abolition of Humberside in 1996, the local council members of the Police Authority were appointed by a joint committee of the councils of the East Riding of Yorkshire, Kingston upon Hull, North Lincolnshire, and North East Lincolnshire. On 21 November 2012, the Police Authority was made redundant by the election of the Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC). The authority, at the time it ceased to exist, had 17 members in total; nine Local Authority Elected members from the area's four unitary authorities and eight independent members.

Chief constables

* 19741976: Robert Walton
* 19761991: David Hall
* 19911999: D. Anthony Leonard
* 19992005: David Westwood
* 20052013: Timothy Stancliffe Hollis
* 20132017: Justine Curran
* 2017present: Lee Freeman

From March 2013 to February 2017, the chief constable of Humberside Police was Justine Curran, previously chief constable of Tayside Police in Scotland before the introduction of the national Police Scotland service on 1 April 2013. Her appointment was unanimously approved by the Humberside Police and Crime panel after PCC Matthew Grove, proposed her for the post. Curran took over the position from Tim Hollis, who retired from the service in March 2013.

On 11 November 2015, it was revealed that Curran had claimed for more than £39,000 in expenses for her relocation from Tayside to Humberside in March 2013.

After Keith Hunter was elected as PCC in May 2016, Curran was given six months to improve the force after it was rated inadequate by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC). Nine months later, after a further HMIC inspection which identified further "significant failings", Hunter asked Curran to consider her position, and she announced her retirement. She left on 20 February 2017, 18 months before she had been due to retire.

In August 2017, it was revealed that Hunter had "lost confidence" in Curran and was "completely undermined" by her when it was decided to withhold the findings of an HMIC investigation which revealed further inadequacies within the force. Hunter sought legal advice, and Curran was allowed to retire before the statutory procedure to remove a chief constable was started.

Lee Freeman, a former assistant chief constable in Lincolnshire from August 2013 who had joined Humberside in May 2015, took over as deputy chief constable on Curran's departure. He was appointed temporary chief constable in May 2017 and the position was made permanent on 26 June 2017.

Police fleet

Humberside uses a wide variety of vehicles, including both marked and unmarked police vehicles.

Performance

The force underperformed for a number of years. In October 2006 it was named as the worst-performing police force in the country (jointly with Northamptonshire Police), based on data released from the Home Office

In 2007 the force moved off the bottom of the unofficial league table thanks to "major improvements" in performance, according to the Home Office.

Performance continued to improve, with a 20% reduction in total recorded crime as at March 2009. Recorded vehicle crime was down 39%, domestic burglary was down 12%, and robbery was down 36%. Home Office figures published in July 2009 showed that from 2007/08 to 2008/09, Humberside Police had the second highest increase of all forces in England and Wales in the percentage of British Crime Survey respondents who said that their local police do an excellent or good job.

After inspections by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) between April and August 2009, their report identified Humberside Police as one of the top eight forces in the country.

In April 2009 the force was cited as the poorest performing force for completing Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks. The Home Office requirement is for 95% of requests to be completed within 14 days; Humberside Police completed just 15%. As such checks are often a condition of employment, this failure caused delays for those waiting to start work.

Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, said he was disgusted with this failure. He said, "The delay in processing them stops people taking up work and has a crippling impact on voluntary groups who have to get their volunteers approved. The Humberside Police are seriously lagging behind virtually every other constabulary in the country and local people are being let down."

In October 2015, it was revealed that officer morale in the force was the lowest in the country, with 84.5% of officers saying that their morale was currently low, compared to 70.2% nationally.

On 19 October 2015, in a report published by HMIC, Humberside Police was the only force in the country classed as inadequate. The report suggested that the force had a "limited understanding" of demand for its services, and raised "serious concerns" over the way it was organised. HM Inspector of Constabulary Mike Cunningham said: "Humberside Police has a limited understanding of the current and future demand for its services and, as it is unable to fully match resources to demand in some important areas, this affects its ability to provide a good service to the public." Chief Constable Justine Curran said the force had "moved on" since then.

Similarly, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) released its annual statistics of police complaints from forces throughout the country: Humberside Police performed better than average in many areas; e.g. the number of complaints had decreased by 4% compared to an increase of 6% nationally. But the number of appeals by dissatisfied complainants had increased by 24%: three times the national average.

In November 2015, it was revealed that thousands of telephone calls to the 101 service were being abandoned; the problem had reached its peak in June 2015 when over 11,000 calls were abandoned.

On 19 November 2015 the East Riding of Yorkshire Council agreed to reconvene a panel to review the force after October's HMIC inspection. The panel ended up criticising both police and crime commissioner Matthew Grove and chief constable Justine Curran for refusing to attend one of its meetings. This had led the council to write a critical letter to the parliamentary committee for standards in public life, highlighting concerns over a lack of proper consultation over the reorganisation. Speaking at the full council meeting, Cllr. Owen said the panel's concerns had been vindicated by the HMIC report. He said "all public sector bodies are facing huge financial pressures and I fully appreciate the pressures we all face, and Humberside Police are no different, recovering from a number of years of having to improve performance in a climate of low funding and other pressures.

In June 2018, 12 months after Curran's departure, Humberside Police were formally disengaged by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) and assessed as sufficiently improved and stable to be removed from what were in effect "special measures"

In August 2018, in the annual Police Federation Pay and Morale Survey, Humberside were officially recorded as the most improved police force in the country in terms of police officers' reported levels of personal morale. The survey placed the force 3rd out of 43 forces across England and Wales; the previous year the results were reported locally as Humberside having the lowest morale in the country.

PEEL inspection

His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) conducts a periodic police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) inspection of each police service's performance. In November 2022, the force was awarded six outstanding and two good grades in its PEEL inspection, one of the best in the UK.
It was rated as follows:

Custody suites

Humberside Police has two custody suites in Hull and Grimsby, that operate 24/7 and hold prisoners which have been arrested by officers in the force.

The 40-cell custody suite at Clough Road Police Station in Hull was built as a state of the art replacement for the Queens Gardens Police Station.

In 2019, both the Scunthorpe and Grimsby custody suites shut. Prisoners are now held in a £14million, 36-cell custody suite, located at Birchin Way, Grimsby. The new cells include a secure holding bay for arriving prisoners, CCTV monitoring throughout, and special 'orange' holding cell for vulnerable prisoners.

Controversy

The 1998 death of Christopher Alder, a black man who was unlawfully killed while in the custody of Humberside Police, led to an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission and a subsequent apology by the government in the European Court of Human Rights, admitting that it had failed to meet its obligations regarding preservation of life and ensuring no person is subjected to "inhuman or degrading treatment". Five Humberside Police officers were charged with manslaughter and misconduct in public office but the trial collapsed and the judge ordered the jury to find the officers not guilty on all charges.

Humberside Police shot to the national headlines in mid-2004 when it refused to dismiss Chief Constable David Westwood despite instructions from the then Home Secretary, David Blunkett. The Home Secretary eventually obtained a court order suspending Westwood. The force had come under pressure to dismiss Westwood when the Soham Inquiry apportioned part of the blame to Humberside Police for not properly informing the authorities of Grimsby-born Ian Huntley, who was known to Humberside Police and local social services, after reports of nine sexual offences of which Huntley had been suspected, and also an alleged burglary. In only one of the sex offence investigations was Huntley charged (with rape) and remanded in custody, but the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence, and his burglary case was left on file. Huntley was not convicted of any crime (his only actual conviction was for a minor motoring offence in 1993), and Humberside Police did not adequately inform the authorities in Cambridgeshire about Huntley when he moved to Soham to work as a school caretaker. He was found guilty of murdering two 10-year-old girls (Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman) in 2003.

This led to the Bichard enquiry for the police force and the Kelly report for the local council (North East Lincolnshire Council).

It returned to the headlines in 2005 when Colin Inglis, its chairman at the time of the crisis, appeared in court charged with indecent assaults against children dating back to the 1980s. Inglis was cleared of all charges in July 2006.

In January 2015, former Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Andrews was convicted of common assault, harassment, stalking, and witness intimidation. Court testimony revealed that other senior officers in Humberside Police questioned whether an investigation into Andrews' conduct should have gone ahead, concerned by "the 'dirt' he might throw" and the damage caused to the force's reputation. One victim, a police inspector, expressed fear of a Goole-based "mafia" of senior officers that included Andrews.

In November 2015, a sergeant with 27 years' service was dismissed after kicking a 16-year-old boy in the head following a chase. Sergeant John Stevenson was involved in one of the most high-profile cases in Humberside Police's recent history when he arrested his own boss, Colin Andrews, who was found guilty of stalking, harassment and assault in January. Many speculated that the sergeant was used as a scapegoat.

A former police officer, Harry Miller, was questioned over the telephone by Humberside Police for 34 minutes because he liked a Twitter post apparently mocking Transgender ideology. The High Court ruled in 2020 that this questioning was unlawful and represented a "disproportionate interference" with the man's right to freedom of expression.

Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC)

On Thursday 15 November 2012 the people of Humberside went to the polling stations to vote for a candidate for the Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner for the Humberside Police, as did the rest of the people of England and Wales, except the Metropolitan Police area, to vote for a PCC in their respective police services. Following the poll Matthew Grove was elected as the new Police and Crime Commissioner for the Humberside Police area. When the commissioner took up office the existing Police Authority was abolished.

On 6 May 2016, Labour's Keith Hunter was elected as Humberside Police's next PCC, receiving over 76,128 votes in total during the second round, compared to Grove's 51,757.

Documentaries

''The Lock Up''

Humberside Police recently participated in a documentary serious named '' The Lock Up'', where cameras followed Police and Custody officers in their work at the Custody Suite at Humberside Police Headquarters on Priory Road, Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire.

The documentary has had 2 series, the first aired on BBC Three which started showing on 4 February 2011 consisting of 8 episodes where cameras rolled 24/7; the second series was aired primarily on the main BBC
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