States of Jersey Police | |
---|---|
Agency overview | |
Formed | 1951 |
Jurisdictional structure | |
Operations jurisdiction | Jersey |
States of Jersey Police area | |
Size | 119.4 km2 (46.1 sq mi) |
Population | 104,200 [1] |
General nature | |
Operational structure | |
Headquarters | Saint Helier |
Sworn members | 306 |
Agency executive |
|
Uniformed Shifts | 5 |
Facilities | |
Stations | 2 |
Website | |
www |
The States of Jersey Police or States Police are a paid police force in the Bailiwick of Jersey. Alongside the unpaid Honorary Police, the States Police make up the 13 official police forces on the island, though the States Police are the only force to be paid and to operate island-wide. The States Police was established in its current form by the Police Force (Jersey) Law, 1974 and consists of around 240 officers.
This was some 130 years after the need for a full-time force was identified. A body of paid and uniformed town police was set up in Saint Helier in 1854, which became the nucleus of the Paid Police established to operate Island-wide in 1951 by the Paid Police Force (Jersey) Law. [2] The Paid Police was renamed the States of Jersey Police in 1960.
The States of Jersey Police are the only officers with Island-wide powers and provide a professional response to all serious crimes on the Island. Under a memorandum of understanding with the twelve parish forces the latter routinely handle minor matters and traffic control, but Centeniers remain the only officers able to bring charges.
The fictional Bureau des Étrangers department of the States of Jersey Police featured in the British TV series Bergerac .
The States Police's origin dates to 1853 as a small group of uniformed officers. This was a combined police force and fire service, whose offices were within the St Helier Town Hall, as they only served the town. [2]
In the 1890s, this became more standardised as the St Helier Paid Police Force were established. They began to serve other parishes in the 1930s. [2]
The paid police remained a parish-run body until 1952, when the States of Jersey Police were established on 24 May with 64 officers. [2]
In 2013, plans to build a new headquarters building were approved. The new building which supersedes the old headquarters located in Rouge Bouillon, was opened on 7 March 2017, [3] and sits on land which was occupied by a part of Green Street car park. [4] [5]
Jersey's status as a self-governing Crown Dependency outside the United Kingdom creates a unique environment for policing compared to most British forces. The States Police must therefore take on roles which may be taken on by other agencies for a UK force. [6]
The force's Joint Financial Crimes Unit works with global policing agencies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. [6]
An investigation into allegations of historical child abuse had begun in 2006. Several sites on the grounds of Haut de la Garenne, a former children's home, were excavated in 2008, and finds of human remains and other items were announced amid sensational international publicity. In September 2008, Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell of Lancashire Police took over as Senior Investigating Officer in the abuse enquiry. [7] In August 2008, David Warcup, Deputy Chief Constable of Northumbria Police, took over as Deputy Chief Officer of the States of Jersey Police. The new team launched a review of the investigation to date, and subsequently in November 2008, Warcup expressed "much regret" that misleading information had been released throughout the enquiry and that there was "no evidence" of any child murders at Haut de la Garenne. [8]
Detective Superintendent Gradwell retired in August 2009 at the end of his contract and returned to the UK. On retiring, he described the investigation before the time he took over as a "poorly managed mess" and, in particular, the decision to excavate at Haut de la Garenne as being without justification and "a complete and total waste of public money, time and effort". [9]
As a result of the wider investigation, disregarding the controversial excavations at Haut de la Garenne, charges were brought against three individuals, and convictions were obtained in court in 2009.
The Chief Officer of the States of Jersey Police, Graham Power, was suspended in November 2008 pending an inquiry into his handling of the historic abuse inquiry, in the wake of the public withdrawal by police of claims of evidence. [8]
In August 2009, it was announced that Power, still on suspension but contesting his suspension through legal process, had been suspended again in relation to the keeping of secret files on politicians, an affair unrelated to the historic abuse inquiry. [10]
Power later retired and was replaced in the interim by David Warcup, who subsequently announced his own departure in July 2010. [11]
States of Jersey Police ranks and insignia | ||||||
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Rank | Chief officer | Chief superintendent | Chief inspector | Inspector | Sergeant | Constable |
Epaulette insignia |
Bergerac is a British crime drama television series. Set in Jersey, it ran from 18 October 1981 to 26 December 1991. Produced by the BBC in association with the Australian Seven Network, and first screened on BBC1, it stars John Nettles as the title character Jim Bergerac, who is initially a detective sergeant in Le Bureau des Étrangers, within the States of Jersey Police, but later leaves the force and becomes a private investigator.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is distinct from its Special Branch. The name derives from the CID of the Metropolitan Police, formed on 8 April 1878 by C. E. Howard Vincent as a re-formation of its Detective Branch. British colonial police forces all over the world adopted the terminology developed in the UK in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and later the police forces of those countries often retained it after independence. English-language media often use "CID" as a translation to refer to comparable organisations in other countries.
Sir Philip Martin Bailhache KC is a Jersey politician and lawyer who has served as a Deputy for St Clement since 2022 and the leader of the Jersey Liberal Conservatives party.
Victoria College is a Government-run, fee-paying, academically selective day school for boys in St Helier, Jersey. Founded in 1852, the school is named after Queen Victoria. It is owned and administered by the Government of Jersey and is located on Mont Millais adjacent to Jersey College for Girls, the Government fee-paying secondary school for girls. As a fee-charging school and a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), Victoria College is often considered a private school or a public school in the British sense of the term, despite receiving government funding.
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 Mayor Oliver Coppard.
The Royal Falkland Islands Police (RFIP) is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the Falkland Islands. The current Chief Police Officer is Superintendent Barry Thacker. The Falkland Islands Police Force was granted the "Royal" prefix by Queen Elizabeth II on 1 January 1992.
Stuart Syvret is a former Jersey politician. He held elected office as a member of the States Assembly from 1990 to 2010. From 1999 to 2007, Svyret had executive responsibilities first as president of the Health and Social Services Committee and, after the 2005 constitutional reforms, as Minister for Health and Social Services in the Council of Ministers. He was dismissed from ministerial office in September 2007 and returned to the backbenches until he was disqualified from membership of the States in April 2010 due to his absence from the island. He has been involved in a series of legal proceedings, as a defendant in a criminal prosecution in Jersey and as a claimant in judicial review and civil claims in Jersey and London.
Philip Ozouf is a Jersey politician representing the Parish of St Saviour in the States Assembly. He was a member of the States of Jersey from 1999 until 2018, serving as Economic Development Minister, Treasury and Resources Minister, and Assistant Chief Minister in the Council of Ministers. More recently he was Minister for External Relations and Financial Services.
There is an Honorary Police force in each of the twelve parishes of Jersey. Members of the Honorary Police are elected by the voters of the parish in which they serve, and are unpaid.
The Jersey Accommodation and Activity Centre is a building just north of Gorey in the parish of Saint Martin, Jersey, in the Channel Islands. It was formerly known as the Industrial School, the Jersey Home for Boys, and Haut de la Garenne. Its previous uses have included being an industrial school, a children's home, a military signal station, a television filming location, and a youth hostel. In 2008 it became the focus of the largest investigation into child abuse ever conducted in Jersey.
The UK Border Agency (UKBA) was the border control agency of the Government of the United Kingdom and part of the Home Office that was superseded by UK Visas and Immigration, Border Force and Immigration Enforcement in April 2013. It was formed as an executive agency on 1 April 2008 by a merger of the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA), UKvisas and the detection functions of HM Revenue and Customs. The decision to create a single border control organisation was taken following a Cabinet Office report.
Frank Harrison Walker OBE is a former British newspaper publisher on the island of Jersey who became the first Chief Minister of Jersey, serving from 2005 to 2008.
An investigation into historic child abuse in Jersey started in the spring of 2007. Before that, social worker Simon Bellwood had made a complaint about a "'Dickensian' system" where children as young as 11 were routinely locked up for 24 hours or more in solitary confinement in a secure unit where he worked. The wider investigation into child abuse over several decades became public in November that year. It received international attention when police moved in on Haut de la Garenne, then being used as a youth hostel.
The Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) is a civilian special police force which is part of the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence. The MDP's primary responsibilities are to provide armed security and counter terrorism services to designated high-risk areas, as well as uniformed policing and limited investigative services to Ministry of Defence property, personnel, and installations throughout the United Kingdom. The MDP are not military police. Service personnel often refer to the MDP by the nickname "MOD plod".
Border Force (BF) is a British law enforcement command within the Home Office, responsible for frontline border control operations at air, sea and rail ports in the United Kingdom. The force was part of the now defunct UK Border Agency from its establishment in 2008 until Home Secretary Theresa May demerged it in March 2012 after severe criticism of the senior management.
Operation Yewtree was a British police investigation into sexual abuse allegations, predominantly the abuse of children, against the English media personality Jimmy Savile and others. The investigation, led by the Metropolitan Police (Met), started in October 2012. After a period of assessment, it became a full criminal investigation, involving inquiries into living people, notably other celebrities, as well as Savile, who had died the previous year.
In late 2012 it emerged that Jimmy Savile, a British media personality who had died the previous year, had sexually abused hundreds of people throughout his life, mostly children but some as old as 75, and mostly female. He had been well known in the United Kingdom for his eccentric image and was generally respected for his charitable work, which associated him with the British monarchy and other individuals of personal power.
Operation Whistle is an investigation by the States of Jersey Police into allegations of historical sexual abuse of children in Jersey. In a press release by the States of Jersey Police, they have stated that it is being carried on under the auspices of Operation Hydrant. It is cooperating with Operation Yewtree due to the involvement of entertainer Jimmy Savile.
The Bailiwick of Jersey has an unwritten constitution arising from the Treaty of Paris (1259). When Henry III and the King of France came to terms over the Duchy of Normandy, the Norman mainland the suzerainty of the King of France. The Channel Islands however remained loyal to the British crown due to the loyalties of its Seigneurs. But they were never absorbed into the Kingdom of England by any Act of Union and exist as "peculiars of the Crown".
On 10 December 2022, an explosion destroyed a block of flats in St Helier, Jersey in the Channel Islands. Ten people were killed in the suspected gas explosion, which occurred just before 4 a.m. GMT.
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