Norfolk Constabulary is the

territorial police force A territorial police force is a police service that is responsible for an area defined by sub-national boundaries, distinguished from other police services which deal with the entire country or a type of crime. In countries organized as federations, ...

responsible for policing

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The force serves a population of 908,000 in a mostly rural area of , including 90 miles of coastline and 16 rivers, including the Broads National Park. Headquartered in

Wymondham Wymondham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England, south-west of Norwich, England, Norwich off the A11 road (England), A11 road to London. The River Tiffey runs through ...

, Norfolk is responsible for the City of Norwich, along with

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

and

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24,340 ...

. As of September 2022, the force has a strength of 1,921 police constables, and as of March 2022, 179 special constables, 1,226 police staff/designated officers, and 100 police support volunteers. The Chief Constable is currently Paul Sanford, and the Police and Crime Commissioner Giles Orpen-Smellie (Conservative).

Organisation

The Constabulary is responsible for policing Norfolk's 4 major settlements, the City of Norwich,

and

, along with the Brecklands, the

Broadlands Broadlands is an English country house, located in the Civil parishes in England, civil parish of Romsey Extra, near the town of Romsey in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. The formal gardens and historic landscape of Broadlands ...

and

North Norfolk North Norfolk is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Cromer. The population at the 2011 Census was 101,149. History The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972. It was a ...

. It is also responsible for Norfolk's 90 miles of coastline, along with 16 rivers, including 120 miles of navigable waters in

The Broads The Broads (known for marketing purposes as The Broads National Park) is a network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes in the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Although the terms "Norfolk Broads" and "Suffolk Broads" are correctly use ...

. RAF Marham, one of the Royal Air Force's Main Operating Bases and home to the F-35 Stealth Fighters, is based in Norfolk.

Sandringham Estate

The Constabulary has a responsibility for policing and security (through its own Royalty Protection Unit) of the

Sandringham Estate Sandringham House is a country house in the parish of Sandringham, Norfolk, England. It is one of the royal residences of Charles III, whose grandfather, George VI, and great-grandfather, George V, both died there. The house stands in a estate ...

, one of only two personal/private residences owned directly by The Royal Family.

Eastern Region Special Operations Unit

Created in 2010, ERSOU is funded by the seven police forces that make up the eastern region, with Bedfordshire Police being the lead force. It is primarily responsible for the combined Regional Organised Crime Unit and Counter Terrorism Policing.

Collaboration

Norfolk & Suffolk Collaboration

Norfolk Constabulary and Suffolk Constabulary, the force bordering to the south, have collaborated numerous services together since 2010. An extensive programme of collaborative work has already delivered a number of joint units and departments in areas such as Major Investigations, Protective Services, Custody, Transport, HR, Finance and ICT. Around £16 million has been saved by pooling resources with Suffolk.

7 Force / Eastern Region Collaboration

The 7 Force Collaboration Programme includes

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, Norfolk,

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

police forces. This strategic collaboration programme was established in 2015 to develop and implement successful collaborative solutions to protect the frontline local delivery of policing. It collaborates on areas including Procurement, Training, Firearms, Driver Management, Digital Assets, Vetting and Forensics, along with ERSOU.

Norfolk Fire & Rescue Service Collaboration

2015 and 2016 respectively saw the relocation of the fire and rescue analysts team and senior management team to Norfolk Constabulary's Operations and Communications Centre (OCC) in Wymondham. This was followed in 2019 with emergency operators from Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service being co-located within the Contact & Control Room (CCR) at OCC.

History

19th and 20th Century

Norfolk Constabulary was founded in 1839 under the County Police Act 1839, and was one of the first county forces to be formed. In 1965, it had an establishment of 636 officers and an actual strength of 529. In 1968 it amalgamated with Norwich City Police and Great Yarmouth Borough Police to form the Norfolk Joint Constabulary. In 1974, it returned to the present name Norfolk Constabulary.

21st century

In March 2006, proposals were made by the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

which would see the force merge with neighbouring forces Cambridgeshire Constabulary and Suffolk Constabulary to form a strategic police force for

. The Norfolk

Police Authority A police authority in the United Kingdom is a public authority that is responsible for overseeing the operations of a police force. The nature and composition of police authorities has varied over time, and there are now just four dedicated "police ...

was enthusiastic for the merger, but the neighbouring forces were not. With the announcement in July 2006 by the Home Office that the principle of merger was under review, the Norfolk Constabulary announced their intention to recruit a permanent Chief Constable, a process that they had delayed while merger was likely. In 2008, the force changed uniforms to black combat style trousers with a polo shirt but reverted to the more traditional white shirt and tie on a trial basis in November 2012. It has since reverted to the polo shirt. In 2018, Norfolk abolished its use of PCSOs and made all of its remaining PCSOs redundant. It became the first police force in England to do this. The loss of PCSOs had allowed Norfolk Police to recruit 97 new staff, including 81 police officers. A 5.5pc rise in the police precept of council tax led to a further 17 police officers and six staff being hired. 2019 saw the

UK Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...

announce that 20,000 new police officers would be recruited as part of a national uplift programme. Norfolk had been allocated 224 of those new officers. 2020/2021 saw almost half of all new Police Officer recruits being female. Since the Government uplift programme began, Norfolk had recruited 211 additional officers as of May 2022, bringing the force strength up to 1,888 police officers. In 2022, Norfolk begun training recruits under the new Police Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF) from its new training centre at Hethersett Old Hall, which sees a partnership of training with

Anglia Ruskin University Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public university in East Anglia, United Kingdom. Its origins are in the Cambridge School of Art, founded by William John Beamont in 1858. It became a university in 1992, and was renamed after John Ruskin in ...

Chief constables

*1909–1915 : Major Egbert Napier *1915–1928 : Captain J.H. Mander (https://norfolk.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/FULL/WPAC/BIBENQ/55706609/30963807,1?FMT=IMG) *1928–1956 : Captain Stephen Hugh Van Neck *1965–1974 : (Frederick) Peter Collison Garland *1975-1980 : Gordon Taylor *1981–1990 : George Charlton *1990–1993 : Peter James Ryan *1993–2002 : Ken Williams *2002–2005 : Andrew Christopher Hayman *2005–2006 : Carole Howlett (acting) *2006–2009 :

Ian McPherson Ian MacPherson, Macpherson or McPherson may refer to: * Ian Macpherson, 1st Baron Strathcarron (1880–1937), British lawyer and politician * Ian Macpherson (novelist) (1905–1944), Scottish novelist * Ian McPherson (footballer) (1920–1983), Sco ...

*2010–2013 : Philip Gormley *2013–2021 : Simon Bailey *2021–present : Paul Sanford

Officers killed in the line of duty

The

Police Roll of Honour Trust The Police Roll of Honour Trust is a charitable organisation registered in England & Wales and Scotland, it was founded in 2000 and records all those British police officers who have died on and in the line of duty. It has been granted a Royal Cha ...

and

Police Memorial Trust The Police Memorial Trust is a charitable organisation founded in 1984 and based in London. The trust's objective is to erect memorials to British police officers killed in the line of duty, at or near the spot where they died, thereby acting as ...

list and commemorate all British police officers killed in the line of duty. Since its establishment in 1984, the Police Memorial Trust has erected 50 memorials nationally to some of those officers. The following officers of Norfolk Constabulary are just two of those from the force that have been killed in the line of duty: *PC Charles William Alger, 1909 (shot) *PC Robert Craig Orr McLaren, 1981 (his vehicle crashed during a

police pursuit A car chase or vehicle pursuit is the vehicular overland chase of one party by another, involving at least one automobile or other wheeled motor vehicle in pursuit, commonly hot pursuit of suspects by law enforcement. The rise of the automotive i ...

)

Governance & Budget

Since 2021, the force has been overseen by military veteran Giles Orpen-Smellie (Conservative) who is the

Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner The Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner is the police and crime commissioner, an elected official tasked with setting out the way crime is tackled by Norfolk Police in the English County of Norfolk. The post was created in November 2012, follo ...

. Since 2021, the Chief Constable is Paul Sanford. Norfolk Constabulary's Budget for 2022/2023 is £193.7 Million, a rise of 10.6 million from the previous year.

References

Bibliography

* ''A Movable Rambling Police: An Official History of Policing in Norfolk'', by Brian David Butcher published by the Norfolk Constabulary and printed in

in 1989 no ISBN

External links

*
Norfolk Constabulary
at

HMICFRS His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), formerly Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), has statutory responsibility for the inspection of the police forces of England and Wales, and since ...

{{Authority control Organisations based in Norfolk Police forces of England Government agencies established in 1839 1839 establishments in England Wymondham, Norfolk