Norfolk Constabulary

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 which would see the force merge with neighbouring forces Cambridgeshire Constabulary and Suffolk Constabulary to form a strategic police force for East Anglia. 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 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, King's Lynn, Great Yarmouth and Thetford, along with the Brecklands, the Broadlands and North Norfolk.

It is also responsible for Norfolk's 90 mi of coastline, along with 16 rivers, including 120 mi of navigable waters in the Broads. 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, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Kent 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.

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

References

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