| Gloucestershire Constabulary | |
| Logo of the Gloucestershire Constabulary. | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1839 |
| Employees | 2,271[1] |
| Volunteers | 143[1] |
| Annual budget | £95.7 million[1] |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | Police area of Gloucestershire in the country of England, UK |
| Map of police area | |
| Size | 1,025 square miles (2,650 km2) |
| Population | 564,000 |
| Legal jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Governing body | Gloucestershire Police Authority |
| Constituting instrument | Police Act 1996 |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Quedgeley |
| Constables | 1,496 (of which 143 are Special Constables)[1] |
| Police Community Support Officers | 162[1] |
| Agency executive | Tony Melville, Chief Constable |
| Local Policing Areas | Forest Gloucester |
| Website | |
| www.gloucestershire.police.uk | |
| Footnotes | |
| * Police area agency: Prescribed geographic area in the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
Gloucestershire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire in England. (South Gloucestershire is covered by Avon and Somerset Constabulary).
As of April 1st 2011, under the new structure, policing in the county is delivered through 6 Local Policing Areas: Cheltenham, Gloucester, Forest of Dean, Cotswolds, Stroud and Tewkesbury.
Within the 6 Local Policing Areas there are 9 Local Policing Teams covering 55 communities: 2 each in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Stroud and 1 in Tewkesbury, the Forest and the Cotswolds.
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The force was founded in 1839, six hours after Wiltshire Constabulary, making it the second rural police force formed in Britain. The force in its present form dates from 1 April 1974, when the southern part of Gloucestershire became part of the County of Avon and thus of the newly formed Avon and Somerset Constabulary.
In 1965, the force had an establishment of 1,010 and an actual strength of 867.[2]
The force currently consists of 6 Local Policing Areas each of these LPA's is commanded by a Superintendent.
In November 2006 a tribunal ruled that the constabulary had illegally discriminated against 108 white male candidates it had rejected from its recruitment process solely because of their race and gender. Matt Powell, one of the "randomly deselected" candidates took legal action and was awarded £2,500 compensation. The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) and the Equal Opportunities Commission who led the investigation stated that the Gloucestershire Police had unlawfully discriminated on the grounds of race and gender.[3][4]