The Northern Constabulary ( gd, Poileas a' Chinn a Tuath) was 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 Northern Scotland, covering the

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

council area {{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A council area is one of the areas defined in Schedule 1 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 and is under the control of one of the local authorities in Scotland created by that Act. ...

along with the

Western Isles The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coast ...

, the

Orkney Islands Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) no ...

and the

Shetland Islands Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the n ...

, which make up most of the

Highlands and Islands The Highlands and Islands is an area of Scotland broadly covering the Scottish Highlands, plus Orkney, Shetland and Outer Hebrides (Western Isles). The Highlands and Islands are sometimes defined as the area to which the Crofters' Act of 1 ...

area. It was the police force covering the largest geographical area in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

, equivalent to the size of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

, but was one of the smallest in terms of officers, with about 715 officers. The Constabulary was one of those amalgamated to form

Police Scotland Police Scotland ( gd, Poileas Alba), officially the Police Service of Scotland (), is the national police force of Scotland. It was formed in 2013, through the merging of eight regional police forces in Scotland, as well as the specialist service ...

in 2013.

History

This police force was formed on 16 May 1975 as a merger of the pre-existing Northern Constabulary, the

Ross and Sutherland Constabulary The Ross and Sutherland Constabulary was a Police Force in Scotland that existed between 16 May 1963 and 16 May 1975. Kenneth Ross, BL was the Chief Constable of the force for its entire existence. History On 11 March 1963 a special meeting of ...

(itself a merger of

Ross and Cromarty Constabulary Ross or ROSS may refer to: People * Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan * Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning * Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland Places * RoSS, the Republic of Sou ...

and

Sutherland Constabulary Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later co ...

) and the

Inverness Constabulary Inverness Constabulary was a police force in Scotland that covered Inverness-shire. It was created on 16 November 1968, as a merger of the Inverness Burgh Police and the Inverness-shire Constabulary. Inverness Constabulary merged with the Nor ...

(a merger of

Inverness Burgh Police The Inverness Burgh Police was the police force responsible for the Royal Burgh of Inverness, Scotland from 1847 until 1968. History Although law enforcement of a kind had been present in the Royal Burgh of Inverness since time immemorial, by ...

and

Inverness-shire Constabulary The Inverness-shire Constabulary, also called the Inverness County Police, was the police force of the county of Inverness-shire in Scotland. The force was established in 1840. On 16 November 1968 the Constabulary merged with Inverness Burgh ...

), along with the northernmost portion of the

Argyll County Police Strathclyde Police was the territorial police force responsible for the Scottish council areas of Argyll and Bute, City of Glasgow, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire ...

area, and the Nairn part of the

Scottish North East Counties Constabulary Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

. The previous Northern Constabulary had been created in 1969 by the merger of the

Caithness Constabulary Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded by ...

Orkney Constabulary Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

and

Zetland Constabulary Zetland may refer to: ;Places * Zetland, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia * An archaic spelling of Shetland ;Other * Marquess of Zetland, a title in the British Peerage * ''Zetland'' (lifeboat), oldest surviving lifeboat in the wor ...

Northern Constabulary Range rover at Police Headquarters Inverness Scotland

The new Northern Constabulary was created at the same time as

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loc ...

reorganisation created the Highland

regional In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

council and the islands councils of the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland. The rest of the Argyll County Police was merged into the

Strathclyde Police Strathclyde Police was the territorial police force responsible for the Scottish council areas of Argyll and Bute, City of Glasgow, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfre ...

, and the rest of the Scottish North East Counties Constabulary into the

Grampian Police Grampian Police was, between 1975 and 2013 (replaced by Police Scotland), the territorial police force of the northeast region of Scotland, covering the council areas of Aberdeenshire, the City of Aberdeen, and Moray (the former Grampian region ...

. The Northern Constabulary area was the same as that covered by the

Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Albania * Dukagjin Highlands Armenia * Armenian Highlands Australia * So ...

. To help keep decision-making as local as possible, Northern was at the forefront nationally in Devolved Resource Management (DRM) for many years. The Chief Constable allocated one-line budgets to each of his Area Commanders, closely monitoring progress across a range of indicators, over the year, through regular Performance Review and Performance Review Boards. An

Act of the Scottish Parliament An Act of the Scottish Parliament ( gd, Achd Pàrlamaid na h-Alba) is primary legislation made by the Scottish Parliament. The power to create Acts was conferred to the Parliament by section 28 of the Scotland Act 1998 following the success ...

, the ''Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012'', created a single Police Service of Scotland - known as

- with effect from 1 April 2013. This merged the eight regional police forces in Scotland (including Northern Constabulary), together with the

Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency The Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) was a special police force of Scotland responsible for disrupting and dismantling serious organised crime groups. The Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency (SDEA) was established on 1 April 2001 ...

, into a single service covering the whole of Scotland. Police Scotland has its headquarters at the

Scottish Police College The Scottish Police College is based at Tulliallan Castle, in Kincardine. Since 1 April 2013, the college has been under the control of Police Scotland. In addition to probationer training, the college provides training in various specialist a ...

Tulliallan Tulliallan (Gaelic ''tulach-aluinn'', 'Beautiful knoll') was an estate in Perthshire, Scotland, near to Kincardine, and a parish. The Blackadder lairds of Tulliallan, a branch of the Blackadder border clan, wielded considerable power in the 15 ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

Divisions and Area Commands

Northern Constabulary was split into three Divisions: North, Central and East. In these three Divisions there were eight Area Commands, each with their own Area Commander. The Area Commands were: *Caithness Sutherland & East Ross *Orkney *Shetland *Ross & Cromarty *Lochaber, Skye & Lochalsh *Western Isles *Inverness *Badenoch, Strathspey & Nairn

Uniform

Until the early 21st century, the uniform consisted of a white shirt, black tie and a stab-proof vest. Northern Constabulary was the last police force in Scotland using shirts and ties. In 2009, the uniform changed to become similar to that of other police forces of Scotland: black shirt with force logo, stab-proof vest and black trousers.

Chief Constables

Chief constables were: *1975–1985 : Donald Burnie Henderson *1985–1996 : Hugh MacMillan *1996–2001 : William Robertson *2001–2011 : Ian Latimer *2011–2013 : George Graham

References

External links