Surrey Police

Surrey Police

Area covered
Area Surrey
Size 1,663 km²
Population 1,067,200
Operations
Formed 1 January 1851
HQ Mount Browne, Guildford
Officers 1,944
Divisions 3
Stations 24
Chief Constable Lynne Owens
Website www.surrey.police.uk

Surrey Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Surrey in the south of England.

The force is currently led by Chief Constable, Lynne Owens, Surrey's first female chief constable.[1] The force has its headquarters at Mount Browne, Guildford, Surrey.

Contents

History

On 1 January 1851, the Surrey Constabulary began its policing of the county with a total of 70 officers, the youngest of whom was 14 years old. The first Chief Constable was H. C. Hastings, who served in this capacity for 48 years. Originally Guildford, Reigate and Godalming had separate borough police forces. The Reigate and Guildford forces were merged into Surrey's in 1943.

Today

Part of the present force area was originally part of the Metropolitan Police District, and was only transferred to the control of Surrey Police from the Metropolitan Police in 2000. This includes the boroughs of Epsom and Ewell, Spelthorne and part of Reigate and Banstead. Surrey Police was divided into three divisions but since 2010 has become a single division, and as of the end of 2009 is policed by 1,840 regular police officers, in addition to 278 Special Constables and 211 Police Community Support Officers (see table below for more information). Surrey has one of the lowest crime rates in England and Wales.

Surrey Police employee numbers:
2004/05[2] 2005/06[3] 2006/07[4] 2007/08[5] 2008/09[6] 2009/10[7] 2010/11[8]
Police Officers 1,959 1,967 1,963 1,944 1,872 1,890 1,885
Special Constables 289 280 275 278 314 327 337
Police Community Support Officers 115 126 203 211 206 224 229
Police Staff 1,472 1,541 1,680 1,808 1,732 1,829 1,805
Designated Officers 39 76 104 179 338 263 287

Notes:
1. All figures are official Home Office figures.
2. All figures are full-time equivalents apart from for special constables which are a headcount.
3. Figures apply to the 31 March of that year, eg, 2008/09 figures are for 31 March 2009.
4. Designated Officers that are not PCSOs have one of three roles: investigation officer, detention officer or escort officer.

Surrey Police officer numbers by rank and division as at 31 December 2009:[9]
Constables Sergeants Inspectors Ch Inspectors Superintendents Ch Superintendents Total
General policing 1,006 187 51 9 8 2 1,263
Specialist operations 343 65 30 13 4 2 457
Support 36 15 14 7 2 3 77
Citizen Focus 19 7 12 3 2 0 43
Total 1,404 274 107 32 16 7 1,840

Air Operations Unit

Surrey, like most British Police Forces, has an Air Operations unit.[10] Operational capability is based around a single helicopter, a Eurocopter EC 135 Advanced Police model, registration number G-SURY. This unit is used for both surveillance work as well as search operations: in 12 minutes, the helicopter can search an area that would otherwise take 450 man-hours. The force's air support unit is based at RAF Odiham, in Hampshire. The unit has operational agreements with air support units from neighbouring forces the Metropolitan Police and Sussex Police.

Surrey Police Museum

To help celebrate its 150th anniversary, a museum portraying the history of the Force was opened at Mount Browne, the Surrey Police's headquarters in Guildford. Surrey resident Sir Michael Caine, CBE, opened the museum on 22 October 2001. Displays include artefacts and touch-screen technology, all tracing the history of the Force up to the present day.

Training of New Recruits

Surrey Police now operates the PLC (police, law & community) course method of training and recruitment.

Complaints

There were 710 complaint cases for Surrey Police in 2009/10. This is a 206% change on the 2003/04 figure. This is the second highest increase (after Northamptonshire) of all 43 forces in England and Wales. For comparison, the average change across forces in England and Wales over the same period was 113%.[11]

Proposed Merger with Sussex Police

Under controversial merger plans announced by then Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, in 2006, the number of police forces in England and Wales would have been cut from 43 to 24. Proposals put forward on 20 March 2006 would have seen the Surrey force merged with Sussex Police to form a single strategic police force for the area.[12]

Police authorities had until 7 April 2006 to respond to the plans; the Home Secretary then announced on 11 April 2006 that Surrey Police and Sussex Police would merge by 2008. However, on 12 July 2006, a Government minister announced that all proposed police merger plans in England and Wales were on hold.[13]

Crime and detection rates

Surrey has the eighth lowest crime rate of the 43 force areas in England and Wales, with 59 crimes per 1,000 population. In the financial year 2010/11 there were 65,125 crimes recorded in Surrey, according to Home Office figures published in July 2011.[14]

Despite this, the detection rate for offences was the joint lowest (with one other force) of the 43 forces in England and Wales, with a rate of 20 percent. The average for England and Wales was 28 percent.

Detection rates by offence group, percentages[15]
Total Violence against the person Sexual offences Robbery Burglary Offences against vehicles Other theft offences Fraud and forgery Criminal damage Drug offences Other offences
Surrey 20 28 26 25 10 6 17 22 9 91 48
England and Wales 28 44 30 21 13 11 22 24 14 94 69

Future of Surrey Police

In a report published by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in July 2011[16], the impact on the number of police officers and staff partly due to the reduction to Surrey Police's budget following the comprehensive spending review is as follows:

Police officers Police staff PCSOs Total
31 March 2010 (actual) 1,890 2,092 224 4,206
31 March 2015 (proposed) 1,959 2,184 222 4,365

Stations with Borough Divisions

Epsom & Ewell Borough

Mole Valley District

Tandridge District

Reigate and Banstead Borough

Spelthorne Borough

Guildford Borough

Woking Borough

Elmbridge Borough

Waverley Borough

Surrey Heath Borough

Runnymede

HQ

  • Mount Browne

Notable cases

Road casualties in Surrey

The following table shows the number of casualties, divided by severity, on Surrey's roads over the past three years.[17]

2008 2009 2010
Fatal 45 41 32
Serious 483 530 488
Slight 5,411 5,184 4,811
Total 5,939 5,755 5,331

See also

Other Surrey Emergency Services

References

  1. ^ Lynne Owens named Surrey's Chief Constable,BBC News
  2. ^ http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20061209022754/homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb1205.pdf
  3. ^ http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20061209022754/homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/hosb1306.pdf
  4. ^ http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20070807081119/homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/hosb1307.pdf
  5. ^ http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110218135832/http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs08/hosb0808.pdf
  6. ^ http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110218135832/rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs09/hosb1309.pdf
  7. ^ http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/police-research/hosb1410/hosb1410?view=Binary
  8. ^ http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/police-research/hosb1311/hosb1311?view=Binary
  9. ^ http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/26577/response/67639/attach/4/Copy%20of%20Workbook%20165%2010%20016.pdf
  10. ^ "Air Operations Unit". Surrey Police. http://www.surrey.police.uk/about/air_support.asp. Retrieved 2009-05-14. 
  11. ^ http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/Documents/complaints_statistics_09-10.pdf
  12. ^ "Police forces 'to be cut to 24'". BBC News. 20 March 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4825524.stm. Retrieved 3 April 2011. 
  13. ^ "Forces happy at 'no merger' news". BBC News. 12 July 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/southern_counties/5173312.stm. Retrieved 3 April 2011. 
  14. ^ Home Office (July 2011). Crime in England and Wales 2010/11. See Excel file for "Police force area data tables".
  15. ^ Home Office (July 2011). Crimes detected in England and Wales 2010/11. See Excel file for "Police force area tables".
  16. ^ HMIC (July 2011). Valuing the Police: Preparedness Inspection - Surrey Police.
  17. ^ http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Road+accidents+-+facts+and+figures?opendocument

External links

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