Durham Constabulary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coverage
Durham Constabulary
Durham Constabulary area
Area	County Durham including Darlington
Size	2,676 km²
Population	0.9 million
Operations
Formed	1974 (merger)
HQ	Durham
Officers	1,738
Areas	2
Stations
Chief Constable	Jon Stoddart

Website	Durham Constabulary

Durham Constabulary is a Home Office police force with the responsibility of policing the non-metropolitan county of Durham and the unitary authority of Darlington, in the north east of England. The force covers the 1,033 square miles of the county which has a resident population of 870,000. It is one of the smaller forces of the forty three territorial police forces that provide police services to England and Wales.

According to the Closing the Gap report, the force had an establishment of 1,738 police officers. There are also about 150 Special Constables. The Chief Constable is Jon Stoddart.

Durham Constabulary is divided into two areas:

North Area, covering Derwentside, Durham/Chester le Street and Easington.
South Area covering Darlington, Sedgefield and Wear & Tees.

Under proposals made by the Home Secretary on February 6, 2006, it would merge with Northumbria Police and Cleveland Police to form a single strategic police force for the North East England. [1] As of July 2006, the plans to merge Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria together where scrapped.

1 History
2 Threatened cuts
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] History

Durham Constabulary was one of the first county police forces to be set up, in 1839. Borough forces were also established in Gateshead, South Shields and Sunderland. These were merged into Durham Constabulary in 1967 (Sunderland) and 1968. The force also lost area to Teesside Police in 1968

Under the Local Government Act 1972, in 1974, the northern area of the force (including Gateshead, Sunderland and South Shields) became part of Northumbria Constabulary, with Hartlepool in the south-east going to Cleveland Constabulary

[edit] Threatened cuts

On 26 October 2006, the force announced that a £10 million financial deficit means it may have to cut more than 300 police officer by 2009 [2]. These would be achieved through recruitment freezes, retirements and natural wastage. The force also announced that it has submitted a recovery plan to the Home Office, which is currently under consideration. It is not clear if this plan, presuming it is approved, will reduce or remove the threat of job losses.