Hertfordshire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Hertfordshire in England. Its headquarters is in Welwyn Garden City. The current chief constable is Andy Prophet. As of March 2019, the force consists of over 1,900 police officers, 235 PCSOs, and over 1500 police staff, as well as being supported by more than 410 special constables.[6]
The constabulary was founded in 1841, under the County Police Act, five years after the Hertford Borough Police and St Albans Borough Police had been formed. In 1889, the Hertford Borough Police force was merged into Hertfordshire.
The first constables were working-class men and were paid at the level of an agricultural labourer. In Victorian times, officers were entitled to only one rest day in every four to six weeks and were entitled to only one week's unpaid annual leave a year. A ten-hour working day was the norm and no meal breaks were allowed.[citation needed]
There were strict constraints on an officer's private life too. For example, officers reportedly could not leave their homes without permission, and could only go out with their wives as long as they were not absent for more than two hours and someone was at home to take messages.[7]
St Albans Constabulary remained independent until 1947, but was then absorbed into the Hertfordshire Constabulary. Finally, in 2000 that the current force boundaries came into place with the addition of Hertsmere and Broxbourne, transferred from the Metropolitan Police.[8][9]
In 2006, proposals were made by Charles Clarke, the then Home Secretary, that would see the force merge with neighbour forces Bedfordshire Police and Essex Police to form a new strategic police force.[10] But in July 2006, Prime Minister Tony Blair signalled that police force mergers would not be forced through by the central government.[11] However, with the economic recession beginning in 2008 the force began working on collaboration with neighbouring forces, first joining with Bedfordshire Police and then Cambridgeshire Constabulary in a strategic alliance. The three forces formed joint units in counter terrorism, major crime, dogs, firearms, SOCO, roads policing, operation planning, civil contingencies, ICT and professional standards. Working collaboratively in this way protected local policing by local officers, but enabled specialist units to work across, and be paid for by, all three forces.
Further collaborative work is under way[when?] with call handling, control and dispatch, human resources and some "back-office" functions being examined for merging.[12] For the foreseeable future, the Constabulary looks likely to remain an independent force. Ultimately, the decision for any full merger of the three forces will be in the hands of the Police and Crime Commissioners, and thereby in turn, the public themselves.
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. Since 1950, the following officers of Hertfordshire Constabulary are listed by the Trust as having been killed in the line of duty:[15]
Rank
Name
Age
Year of death
Circumstances
PC
Frank Edwin Hulme
31
1958
Collapsed and died after a violent arrest.
PC
Arthur William Burch
38
1960
PC Burch and PC Silcock were both killed while travelling in a patrol car which collided with a tanker, while pursuing a speeding car.
PC
Anthony Richard Silcock
25
1960
WPC
Mandy Dawn Rayner
18
1982
Fatally injured when her stationary vehicle was rammed during a police pursuit.
PC
Francis John Mason
27
1988
Shot dead when, despite being off duty, he intervened in an armed robbery. Posthumously awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal.
WPC
Jacqueline Ann Brown
23
1989
Fatally injured in a patrol car crash during a prisoner escort at Harpenden.
PC
Ronald Raymond Hull
35
1989
Killed assisting at an accident in thick fog when struck by a speeding car.
PC
Kevin John Church
46
2005
Killed in a motorcycle accident while on a plain clothes policing operation.
Five Intervention and Response Teams: Each team is headed by a sergeant and aligned to a shift pattern, there is always at least one team on duty at any time during the year. Intervention teams respond to 999 and non emergency calls and perform general patrol duties.
Neighbourhood Policing Teams (formerly Safety Neighbourhood Teams): Combined teams of PCs and PCSOs covering local and quality of life issues. Each Ward/Neighbourhood has at least one PC and PCSO to maintain an up-to-date knowledge of local issues and to address them. Each town is headed by a sergeant, with an inspector supervising on a CSP level.
Local Crime Unit: Team of Detectives with a remit covering burglaries to assaults, alternatively referred to as CID.
Specialist units
An Armed Response Vehicle seen in Borehamwood in 2017
Local policing is supplemented by an array of specialist units, some of which are collaborated with Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. These include:
Armed Policing Unit: Collaborated unit working across the three counties providing Armed Response Vehicles, crewed with authorised firearms officers to assist in the response to potentially dangerous incidents such as those involving firearms and knives. The unit also provides a specialist firearms officer capability for hostage rescue and close protection.
Dog Unit: Collaborated unit providing a 24/7 police dog service for tracking, searching and public order duties. The unit also provides pre-planned capabilities for explosive and drugs search.
Road Policing Unit: Collaborated unit, primarily patrol and respond to serious incidents on the motorway and other road networks. Other duties include responsibilities for taking over pursuits, traffic management and road death investigation.
Major Crime Unit: Collaborated unit, responsible for the investigation of murder, stranger rape and kidnap, amongst others.
Operational Support
Force Communications Room (FCR): Responsible for taking emergency and non-emergency calls and recording crime through call handling and the deployment and management of resources through Despatch and Control. The FCR receives an average of 3,000 calls and deals with over 1,000 incidents every day.
Notable incidents and investigations
Notable major incidents and investigations in which Hertfordshire Constabulary have directed or been involved include:
October 2000: Hatfield rail crash: A railway accident that caused four deaths and over 70 injuries. The accident exposed major stewardship shortcomings and regulatory oversight failings of Railtrack and ultimately triggered its partial re-nationalisation.
May 2002: Potters Bar Railway Crash: A railway accident that occurred when a train derailed at high speed, killing seven and injuring 76. Part of the train ended up wedged between the station platforms and building structures.
December 2005: The Buncefield fire: A major fire caused by a series of explosions at the Buncefield oil storage facility causing 45 injuries. It was the largest peacetime explosion since the Second World War and the plume of smoke could be seen from space.
July 2011: Typing error causes false accusation of paedophilia: In April 2014, Hertfordshire Constabulary acknowledged that three years before while investigating distribution of more than 100 indecent images of children their mistyping of an IP address had led to arrest and charges against the wrong person, the male partner of a woman to whom the mistyped IP address happened to be allocated. In October 2016, Hertfordshire Constabulary settled out of court paying damages and legal costs.[16]
May 2012: Rothamsted Research protests: Approximately 200 protesters attempted to occupy an agricultural research centre that was conducting tests on genetically modified wheat.
June 2013: Bilderberg meeting: Hertfordshire Constabulary deployed large numbers of resources, including officers from other forces on mutual aid, in an operation around the Bilderberg Group meeting at The Grove Hotel, Watford.
March and November 2021: Armed police raided wrong addresses on two separate operations.[17][18]
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