Norfolk Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The force serves a population of 908,000 in a mostly rural area of , including 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. It lies on the River Tiffey, south-west of Norwich and just off the A11 road (England), A11 road to London. The pari ...

, 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 north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...

and

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road (England), A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, coverin ...

. As of March 2023, the force has a strength of 1,897 police officers, 163 special constables, 1,318 police staff/designated officers, and 103 police support volunteers. The Chief Constable is Paul Sanford, and the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) is Sarah Taylor (Labour).

History

19th and 20th centuries

Wymondham had its own parish police force from November 1833 until 1840. It was formed under the provisions of the Watching and Lighting Act 1833 to combat constant disturbances and depredation within the parish. It had a strength of 3 constables. Norwich City Police / Great Yarmouth Borough Police / King's Lynn Borough Police were formed in 1836 following the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which required local councils to appoint paid constable to keep the peace. Between 1858 - 1901 Norwich City Police maintained a strength of approx 100 constables. Norfolk County Constabulary was founded as a county force on 22 November 1839 under the County Police Act 1839, and was one of the first county forces to be formed. It formerly begun operating in 1840. Initially, the force had a recommended strength of 1 Chief Constable, 12 superintendents and 120 constables, spread over approximately 12 districts. Wymondham Police was merged with Norfolk County Constabulary upon its inception in 1840. Thetford also had its own borough police force until 1857 where it was merged with Norfolk County Constabulary. King's Lynn Borough Police was amalgamated with the County Force in 1947 following the Police Act 1946. In 1910 Great Yarmouth Borough Police had a strength of 68 constables and 6 horses. In 1965, Norfolk County Constabulary 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 (under the Police Act 1964) 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, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...

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 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 150 PCSOs 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. In 2019 the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

announced 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.

Chief constables

*1840-n.d. Colonel Richard Montague Oakes *n.d - 1880: Colonel George Black *1880-1909 Sir Paynton Pigott *1909–1915 Major Egbert Napier *1915–1928 Captain J.H. Mander *1928–1956 Captain Stephen Hugh Van Neck *1956–1975 (Frederick) Peter Collison Garland *1975-1980 Gordon Taylor *1981–1990 George Charlton *1990–1993 Peter Ryan *1993–2002 Ken Williams *2002–2005 Andy Hayman *2005–2006 Carole Howlett (acting) *2006–2009 Ian McPherson *2010–2013 Phil Gormley *2013–2021 Simon Bailey *2021–present : Paul Sanford

Officers killed in the line of duty

The Police Roll of Honour Trust and Police Memorial Trust 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)

Organisation

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

and

, along with the Brecklands, the Broadlands and North Norfolk. It is also responsible for Norfolk's of coastline, along with 16 rivers, including 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 used ...

. It achieves this through Broads Beat, the UK's only inland waterways police, which is partly funded by public sponsorship. There are 1,457 police constables (PC's) in Norfolk (with the remainder being officers of the rank sergeant and above). This accounts for 159 police constables per 100,000 population. 219 officers are assigned to neighbourhood policing whilst 704 are assigned to incident/response management. Norfolk Constabulary has a responsibility for policing and security (through its own Royalty Protection Unit) of the Sandringham Estate, one of only two personal/private residences owned directly by The Royal Family. Created in 2010, the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (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. In 2018, then-chief constable Simon Bailey stated that around £16 million had 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, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

, Hertfordshire, Norfolk,

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

and

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

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 Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) is the statutory fire and rescue service for the county of Norfolk in the east of England. The county consists of around 870,100 people, covering the 4th largest area in England with 2,074 square miles inclu ...

being co-located within the Contact & Control Room (CCR) at OCC.

Governance and budget

Since 2024, the force has been overseen by Sarah Taylor (Labour) who is the Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner. Since 2021, the Chief Constable has been Paul Sanford. Norfolk Constabulary's Budget (real terms) for 2023/2024 is £204million, with £111 million being funded by the government and £93 million from precept (council tax).

References

Bibliography

*Brian David Butcher (1989) ''A Movable Rambling Police: An Official History of Policing in Norfolk'' published by the Norfolk Constabulary

External links

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