This article needs to be updated.(September 2014) |
South Yorkshire Police | |
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Abbreviation | SYP |
Motto | Justice with courage |
Agency overview | |
Formed | 1974 |
Preceding agencies | |
Annual budget | £251 million (2012–13) |
Jurisdictional structure | |
Operations jurisdiction | South Yorkshire, England |
Map of South Yorkshire Police's jurisdiction | |
Size | 1,554 square kilometres (600 sq mi) |
Population | 1.28 million |
Governing body | Home Office |
Constituting instrument | |
General nature | |
Operational structure | |
Overviewed by | |
Headquarters | Sheffield |
Sworn members | 2,710 (As of August 2013) |
Unsworn members | 2,218 (As of August 2013) |
South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner responsible | |
Agency executives |
|
Districts | 4
|
Facilities | |
Stations | 24 |
Custody Suites | 3 |
Vehicle Fleets | 500 + |
Dogs | 15 |
Horses | 9 |
Website | |
www |
South Yorkshire Police (SYP) is the territorial police force responsible for policing South Yorkshire in England. The force is led by Chief Constable Lauren Poultney. Oversight is conducted by Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Billings.
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The force was formed in 1974, as a merger of the previous Sheffield and Rotherham Constabulary along with part of the West Yorkshire Constabulary area (which Barnsley Borough Police and Doncaster Borough Police had been merged into on 1 October 1968).
The force's roads policing unit and its helicopter, Sierra Yankee 99, have been a feature in three television series: Traffic Cops , Sky Cops and Police Interceptors . The helicopter unit was subsequently taken over by the National Police Air Service (NPAS), and closed down.
Period of Appointment | Name |
---|---|
1974–1979 | Sir Richard Barratt |
1979–1983 | James Hilton Brownlow [1] |
1983–1990 | Peter Wright [2] |
1990–1998 | Richard Wells |
1998–2004 | Mike Hedges |
2004–2011 | Meredydd Hughes |
2011–2012 | Robert Dyson (temporary) [3] |
2012–2016 | David Crompton [4] [5] |
2016–2021 | Stephen Watson |
2021–present | Lauren Poultney [6] |
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 list below shows sworn police officers who have died whilst on duty: [7]
Name | Rank | Organisation | Date | Cause of death |
---|---|---|---|---|
Alfred Austwick | Police constable | West Riding of Yorkshire Constabulary | 1 August 1886 (aged 30) | Shot and fatally wounded by a man he had warned about his conduct |
William Beardshaw | Police constable | Sheffield Borough Police | 23 July 1855 (aged 26) | Struck on head by a stone during a street disturbance and died next day |
Arthur Tyler Bull | Special constable | Rotherham Borough Police | 2 October 1916 (aged 46) | Collapsed of heart failure while on duty in the early hours |
Archie Cornish | Inspector | Sheffield Police Fire Brigade | 18 February 1931 (aged 47) | Burns sustained fighting a fire at a hospital in November 1930 |
Sandra Jane Edwards | Woman police constable | South Yorkshire Police | 10 May 1995 (aged 28) | Traffic car crashed while pursuing a stolen car |
Dave Fields | Police constable | South Yorkshire Police | 25 December 2017 (aged 45) | Traffic car crashed while responding to an incident |
Samuel Pidd Gibson | Police constable | Sheffield Borough Police | 24 February 1872 (aged 33) | A fractured skull received during an arrest in a hostile crowd |
Harold Grainger | Police constable | South Yorkshire Police | 26 October 1974 (aged 35) | Police vehicle accident while on prisoner escort to Paisley |
Glen Howe | Police constable | South Yorkshire Police | 24 October 2008 (aged 48) | Police motorcycle accident attending an emergency in Sheffield |
Matt Lannie | Police constable | South Yorkshire Police | 21 April 2020 (aged 40) | Police motorcycle accident in Sheffield while responding to a vehicle failing to stop |
Thomas Andrew Jackson | Police constable | South Yorkshire Police | 13 December 2003 (aged 46) | Collapsed dispersing rival football crowds with his police dog |
William Jackson | Sergeant | Sheffield City Police | 26 November 1914 (aged 41) | Accidentally killed by a train while crossing the line on patrol at night |
John William Kew | Police constable | West Riding of Yorkshire Constabulary | 11 July 1900 (aged 29) | Fatally shot challenging two armed suspects who had threatened him |
Harry Marriott | Police constable | Sheffield City Police | 8 June 1961 (aged 31) | Accidental collision with a van while on motorcycle patrol |
Lot Moor | Police constable | West Riding of Yorkshire Constabulary | 16 June 1900 (aged 58) | Found dead on his beat in the early morning believed from heart failure |
Frank Hides Munks | Police war reserve constable | Sheffield City Police | 13 December 1940 (aged 52) | Enemy air raid |
John Pollard | Chief constable | Rotherham Borough Police | 30 June 1888 (aged 41) | Collapsed while running to the scene of a fire late at night |
Edwin Pryor | Police constable | Sheffield Borough Police | 8 April 1857 | Struck on head by a stone during a street disturbance and died next day |
Rex Webster Robinson | Sergeant | Doncaster Borough Police | 9 December 1961 (aged 52) | Collapsed while briefing traffic officers on shift changeover |
Gina Corin Rutherford | Woman police constable | South Yorkshire Police | 7 February 1994 (aged 25) | Drowned in a patrol car which left an icy road and crashed into a river |
Barry Saunders | Police constable | South Yorkshire Police | 24 November 1989 (aged 31) | Fell through a roof while checking burgled factory premises |
James Slee | Police constable | Sheffield City Police | September 1940 (aged 30) | Road accident on patrol in a police motorcycle combination |
Kenneth South | Police constable | Sheffield City Police | 30 March 1960 (aged 25) | Motorcycle accident after finishing an extended tour of duty |
Frederick Parkes Spencer | Police fireman | Sheffield Police Fire Brigade | 12 December 1940 (aged 36) | Killed fighting a fire at the Empire Theatre after an enemy air raid |
George William Watson | Inspector | West Riding of Yorkshire Constabulary | 5 November 1953 (aged 48) | Collapsed soon after leading a police funeral escort |
The force has received national attention for the unlawful killing of over 90 people in the Hillsborough Disaster, [8] [9] and the failure to investigate of child sex abuse in the Rotherham scandal in the 2000s. [10] [11]
During the miners strike of 1984 officers from South Yorkshire attacked striking miners then arrested 95 on the charge of rioting. It was found the Police Force had fabricated evidence, carried out false arrest and assaulted miners. No police officer has ever been disciplined or accepted responsibility for their actions. [12] Ex officer Tony Munday has called for an inquiry into how South Yorkshire Police handled the aftermath of the Battle of Orgreave claiming he was told what to put in his statement "by a senior South Yorkshire detective" after he arrested a miner during the Orgreave confrontation. "I've never before or since, while I've been a police officer, been involved where effectively chunks of a statement were dictated. They weren't my words," [13]
The force was condemned by Prime Minister David Cameron in September 2012 for their dishonesty and gross negligence in their handling of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, which led to an apology from the then Chief Constable David Crompton. [14] The Hillsborough Independent Panel had exposed the way in which the force had attempted to divert blame from their own mishandling of the tragedy by feeding false information to the media and altering statements given by their own officers. In June 2013, UK newspaper The Guardian reported on emails sent by Crompton in which he had suggested that the families of fans killed at the Hillsborough disaster had been untruthful. In one, Crompton had written: "One thing is certain – the Hillsborough Campaign for Justice will be doing their version … in fact their version of certain events has become 'the truth' even though it isn't!! I just have the feeling that the media 'machine' favours the families and not us, so we need to be a bit more innovative in our response to have a fighting chance otherwise we will just be roadkill." [15]
On 27 April 2016, it was reported that the force's Chief Constable David Crompton was to be suspended following statements made by South Yorkshire Police after the verdict of the jury in the second Hillsborough disaster inquest. [16] He was temporarily replaced by Deputy Chief Constable Dawn Copley, but the following day it was announced that she herself would be stepping down "in the interests of the force and the workforce" after an investigation into her conduct whilst serving as Assistant Chief Constable at Greater Manchester Police was reported. [17]
The force's judgement has been called into question over a number of incidents in the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, where prosecutions were not undertaken. [18]
In January 2020, the Independent Office for Police Conduct found that South Yorkshire Police had taken insufficient action to protect from harm a child, who had been sexually abused and exploited by Asian men for several years from 2003 onwards. An unnamed chief inspector had told the investigation that the force had been aware of similar abuse for 30 years but had ignored it for fear of increasing racial tensions. [19] [20] In July 2020 the Independent Office of Police Conduct again considered the force's response in relation to the death of Amy-Leanne Stringfellow [21]
In July 2014 South Yorkshire Police came under scrutiny once again following a much-criticised filmed raid on the home of Sir Cliff Richard. No charges resulted but South Yorkshire police agreed to pay Sir Cliff £400,000 to settle a claim he brought against the force.[ citation needed ]
In May 2016, it was reported that two serving police officers, a pilot serving with the National Police Air Service and two retired police officers who crewed the South Yorkshire Police helicopter were to stand trial accused of misusing the camera on the SY Police helicopter to film people who were naked or having sex. Four of the men denied charges of misconduct in a public office and were due to stand trial at Sheffield Crown Court on 17 July 2017. A fifth man did not appear at the hearing. [22] [23] All of the men apart from the 5th were found not guilty of any offence by a jury. The 5th had previously admitted four charges of misconduct in a public office. [24]
The police force covers an area of approximately 600 square miles (1,554 square kilometres) which is made up of the county's three boroughs (Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham) along with the City of Sheffield. The resident population is 1.2 million.
The force is divided into four basic command units (BCUs):
Force headquarters is at Carbrook House, in Tinsley, Sheffield, following a move from Snig Hill police station in early 2013. This move saw the senior command team and other services (such as firearms licensing) move into one location, funded by the sale of outdated buildings, including West Bar police station, and the future sale of vacated properties. [25]
South Yorkshire Police is one of a number of police forces in the United Kingdom to merge its vehicle maintenance operations with their area fire service, merging maintenance operations with the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service in June 2018. [26] Joint maintenance operations are based at a workshop in Rotherham, which opened in late 2020. [27]
South Yorkshire Police maintained a fleet of both marked and unmarked Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X and Vauxhall Insignia VXRs as part of the force's Road Crime Unit throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s, replacing a fleet of Volvos previously used for traffic policing operations. [28] The force had previously made use of older Lancer Evolution VIII and IX around the time of the introduction of the Evolution X models. [29]
South Yorkshire Police and West Yorkshire Police led a consortium of twenty other police forces in England, Scotland and Wales in a £34 million national fleet vehicle standardisation scheme in 2015. The forces involved in the consortium standardised on Peugeot vehicles for general purpose use, purchasing the 208, 308, 3008, and Partner, as well as BMW vehicles for use in traffic policing and Ford four-wheel drive vehicles. Savings for taxpayers as a result of this purchasing consortium was estimated at around £5 million. [30]
The chief constable since May 2021 is Lauren Poultney. [6] She replaced Stephen Watson, who left South Yorkshire Police to take over as chief constable of Greater Manchester Police. [31] Watson replaced Dawn Copley, the former deputy chief constable, who stood down a day after assuming the acting chief constable post due to 'her conduct at a previous force being investigated'. [32] Copley assumed the post after David Crompton was suspended regarding comments made about the Hillsborough disaster. [33]
South Yorkshire Police is governed by the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner. [34] The election took place on 15 November 2012, the same day as 40 other elections for the respective police and crime commissioners (the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police having other elected officials acting as Commissioner). His deputy, Tracey Cheetham, was confirmed by the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel in January 2013. [35] This is a salaried position, which is coming under scrutiny by local press. [36] The incumbent PCC is Alan Billings, a former Anglican priest and Deputy Leader of Sheffield City Council, who was elected at a by-election on 30 October 2014, to replace Shaun Wright, the incumbent who resigned in the wake of the Rotherham child sexual exploitation controversy. The police and crime commissioner and his deputy are overseen by the police and crime panel.
Before November 2012, police governance was undertaken by the South Yorkshire Police Authority, made up of elected councillors from the four metropolitan boroughs.
The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the two standing-only central pens in the Leppings Lane stand allocated to Liverpool supporters. Shortly before kick-off, in an attempt to ease overcrowding outside the entrance turnstiles, the police match commander, David Duckenfield, ordered exit gate C to be opened, leading to an influx of supporters entering the pens. This resulted in overcrowding of those pens and the crush. With 97 deaths and 766 injuries, it has the highest death toll in British sporting history. Ninety-four people died on the day; another person died in hospital days later, and another victim died in 1993. In July 2021, a coroner ruled that Andrew Devine, who died 32 years later, after suffering severe and irreversible brain damage on the day, was the 97th victim. The match was abandoned and restaged at Old Trafford in Manchester on 7 May 1989; Liverpool won and went on to win that season's FA Cup.
The Battle of Orgreave was a violent confrontation on 18 June 1984 between pickets and officers of the South Yorkshire Police (SYP) and other police forces, including the Metropolitan Police, at a British Steel Corporation (BSC) coking plant at Orgreave, in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It was a pivotal event in the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike, and one of the most violent clashes in British industrial history.
West Midlands Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England.
Cleveland Police is the territorial police force responsible for the policing area corresponding to the former county of Cleveland in Northern England. As of September 2017, the force had 1,274 police officers, 278 police staff, 124 police community support officers and 64 special constables. In the 2019 annual assessment by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, Cleveland Police was rated 'inadequate' overall and rated 'inadequate' in all review areas.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England.
Humberside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing The East Riding of Yorkshire including Hull and northern parts of Lincolnshire including Grimsby and Scunthorpe.
Alan Roy Billings is an Anglican priest and Labour politician who is currently the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner.
Meredydd John Hughes is a retired British police officer. He served as Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police from 1 September 2004 to 2011.
Bernard Hogan-Howe, Baron Hogan-Howe, is an English former police officer and was the head of London's Metropolitan Police as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2011 until 2017.
Rotherham is a minster town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham. Rotherham is named after the River Rother, one of two major rivers to flow through the town.
Sir Norman George Bettison, QPM is a British former police officer and the former Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police. He resigned in October 2012 amidst controversy about his role in the Hillsborough disaster, in which he was involved in the implementation of a cover-up of police errors. He remained the subject of an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation, and was charged on the 28 June 2017 with four counts of misconduct in public office. The case was dropped on 21 August 2018. Bettison's own book Hillsborough Untold (2016) contains his version of events.
Police Scotland, 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 services of the Scottish Police Services Authority, including the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency. Although not formally absorbing it, the merger also resulted in the winding up of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.
Peter Wright was the Chief Constable of the South Yorkshire Police force from 1983 to 1990. During that period members of the force he commanded clashed with striking miners during the UK miners' strike (1984–85) and were responsible for the Hillsborough football ground in Sheffield on 15 April 1989 when the Hillsborough disaster occurred, where 97 fans were unlawfully killed.
Shaun Wright is a British politician. He was the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner from 2012 to 2014. He was the first person to hold the post, to which he was elected as a Labour Party candidate on 15 November 2012. As he held a senior position in child services during the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, he faced continual calls to resign. This resulted in his resignation from the Labour Party on 28 August and from his post on 16 September 2014.
The Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal consists of the organised child sexual abuse that occurred in the town of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, Northern England from the late 1980s until present and the failure of local authorities to act on reports of the abuse throughout most of that period. Researcher Angie Heal, who was hired by local officials and warned them about child exploitation occurring between 2002 and 2007, has since described it as the "biggest child protection scandal in UK history". Evidence of the abuse was first noted in the early 1990s, when care home managers investigated reports that children in their care were being picked up by taxi drivers. From at least 2001, multiple reports passed names of alleged perpetrators, several from one family, to the police and Rotherham Council. The first group conviction took place in 2010, when five British-Pakistani men were convicted of sexual offences against girls aged 12–16. From January 2011 Andrew Norfolk of The Times pressed the issue, reporting in 2012 that the abuse in the town was widespread and that the police and council had known about it for over ten years.
The South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner is the police and crime commissioner of the South Yorkshire Police in South Yorkshire. The post was created on 22 November 2012, following an election held on 15 November 2012, and replaced the South Yorkshire Police Authority. The current South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner is Alan Billings of the Labour Party, who was elected in 2014 and again in 2016. The role was created in 2012 and the initial office holder was Shaun Wright, who resigned on 16 September 2014. The police and crime commissioner is required to produce a strategic South Yorkshire Police and Crime Plan, setting out the priorities for the South Yorkshire Police, and their work is scrutinised by the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel.
The South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner by-election was a 2014 by-election on 30 October 2014 for the position of Police and Crime Commissioner in the South Yorkshire Police region of the United Kingdom. It was triggered by the resignation of Shaun Wright, the inaugural South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, who stepped down from the position on 16 September 2014 following the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal. Wright had been head of children's services in Rotherham between 2005 and 2010, while events surrounding the scandal were taking place. The Labour candidate, Alan Billings, was elected.
Dan Johnson is an English journalist and presenter, working as the West & South West of England correspondent for BBC News.
Sammy Woodhouse is an English activist against child sexual abuse. She was a victim of the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, which she helped expose by giving an anonymous interview to Andrew Norfolk of The Times. Woodhouse has actively supported pardoning child sexual abuse victims for crimes they were coerced into committing.