Cumbria Constabulary

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Cumbria Constabulary
Agency overview
Formed 1974
Preceding agencies
Employees 2,151[1]
Volunteers 142[1]
Annual budget £94 million[1]
Legal personality Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction* Police area of Cumbria in the country of England, UK
England Police Forces (Cumbria).svg
Map of police area
Size 2,268 square miles (5,870 km2)
Population 500,000
Legal jurisdiction England & Wales
Governing body Home Office
Constituting instrument Police Act 1996
General nature
Operational structure
Headquarters Carleton Hall, Penrith
Constables 1,121[2]
Police Community Support Officers 99
Police and Crime Commissioner responsible Richard Rhodes, (C)
Agency executives
Basic Command Units North, South and West Cumbria
Facilities
Stations 14
Patrol cars Cumbria Constabulary Ford Focus

Cumbria Constabulary Ford Transit

Cumbria Constabulary XC70 & v70
Website
www.cumbria.police.uk
Footnotes
* Police area agency: Prescribed geographic area in the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction.

Cumbria Constabulary is the territorial police force in England covering Cumbria. It covers the fifth-largest area in England and Wales (2,268 square miles or 5,870 square kilometres) but is among the forces with the fewest officers. The force area's size and its population of just under 500,000 people makes it sparsely populated. The only major urban areas are Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness.

There are significant areas of isolated and rural community, and the county has one of the smallest visible minority ethnic populations in the country at under 3.0%. Each year Cumbria, which incorporates the Lake District National Park, attracts over 23 million visitors from all over the world (46 times the local population). The county has 67 miles (108 km) of motorway and some 700 miles (1,100 km) of trunk and primary roads.

The force has over 1,100 police officers, 120 special constables and 800 police staff. The Chief Constable is Jerry Graham. The headquarters of the force are at Carleton Hall, Penrith.

The Home Secretary proposed on 6 February 2006 to merge it with Lancashire Constabulary. These proposals were accepted by both forces on 25 February and the merger would have taken place on 1 April 2007.[3] However, in July 2006, the Cumbria and Lancashire forces decided not to proceed with the merger because the Government could not remedy issues with the differing council tax precepts.[4]

Organisation

The force is divided into three Basic Command Units (BCUs) which provide the majority of policing services to the county. Each BCU is commanded by a Superintendent and is further divided into local policing teams (NPTs) each headed by an inspector. There are 19 NPTs throughout the force and these units provide the 24-hour patrol officers, dedicated local community beat officers and other local policing services.

Basic Command Units

North Cumbria BCU has the following NPTs:

South Cumbria BCU has the following NPTs:

West Cumbria BCU has the following NPTs:

The force has 14 police stations.

Specialist departments

There are nine non-operational departments based at headquarters:

  • Operational Support
  • Finance and Resources
  • Personnel and Development
  • Professional Standards
  • Legal Services
  • Information Technology and Management
  • Strategic Development
  • Partnerships
  • Programme Management

There are several force-wide operational specialist units:

  • Roads Policing Unit (RPU): road policing on the motorway network and main roads. The group has 75 officers located at Carlisle and Kendal. They are highly trained in a number of specialized areas including advanced driving techniques, pursuit management, armed response, speed enforcement technology and transport of hazardous goods legislation.
  • Collision Investigation Unit (CIU): formed in 1998, it is responsible for dealing with all road deaths throughout the Constabulary area working in conjunction with officers from the Roads Policing Unit.
  • Dog Unit: made up of 18 constables who are handlers for 18 general purpose dogs. Six of these officers also have specialist dogs, such as firearms, drugs and explosive dogs.

Collaborations

Cumbria Constabulary is a partner in the following collaboration:

History

Cumberland and Westmorland Constabulary was formed in 1856. In 1947 this force absorbed Kendal Borough Police. Less than 20 years later this amalgamated force absorbed Carlisle City Police to form a force broadly the same as today's force called the Cumberland, Westmorland and Carlisle Constabulary. In 1965, it had an establishment of 652 and an actual strength of 617.[5] In 1967 the force name was changed to Cumbria Constabulary.

The force's first, and to date only, murder of an officer occurred on 10 February 1965. Constable George William Russell, aged 36, was fatally shot when, unarmed and knowing that colleagues had already been fired on, he confronted an armed suspect and called upon him to surrender at a railway station in Kendal. Russell was posthumously awarded the Queen's Police Medal for gallantry and a memorial plaque has been unveiled on a wall at Carlisle Cathedral.[6]

In 1974 the force's boundaries were expanded to include the new non-metropolitan county of Cumbria, in particular Furness and Sedbergh Rural District.

Officers killed in the line of duty

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See also: List of British police officers killed in the line of duty

The Police Roll of Honour Trust lists and commemorates all British police officers killed in the line of duty. The Police Memorial Trust has erected over 30 memorials to some of those officers since its establishment in 1984.

PC George William M. Russell of the Cumberland, Westmorland & Carlisle Constabulary is the only Cumbria officer listed as having been killed while attempting to prevent or stop a crime in progress. He was fatally shot confronting armed suspects in 1965.

PC Keith Easterbrook (died 3 June 1993, aged 36) was fatally injured in a road traffic accident, while assisting in a vehicle pursuit, when a van he was overtaking pulled out and collided with his police motorcycle, on the A595 near Workington.

PC William "Bill" Barker was killed whilst on duty on 20 November 2009. At night during severe weather and flooding across the county, the officer was directing motorists to safety off Northside Bridge, Workington, which was in a dangerous condition, when the bridge was destroyed by the flood and he was swept away and killed, his body found on a beach at Allonby that afternoon. Barker had completed 25 years police service and was a traffic officer attached to the Roads Policing Unit based at Workington; he had won a number of awards during his service. [6]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 [1][dead link]
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ The Thin Blue Line, Police Council for Great Britain Staff Side Claim for Undermanning Supplements, 1965
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 http://www.policememorial.org.uk/index.php?page=cumbria-constabulary

External links

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