Introduction

The four autonomous Police forces of the region – North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Humberside – serve a population of over five million people. They serve large urban centres such as Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Hull and York and protect three international airports and the logistic complexes of Hull and the Humber Ports.

Such a varied landscape provides a variety of challenges and each of the four forces provide aspects of policing that range from economic and hi-tech crime, to roads policing and community based problem solving within local neighbourhoods.

Whilst they work independently in most areas of policing, the four Chief Constables and their forces collaborate on major issues and pool their resources. This Regional Collaboration and Future Policing document is a blueprint of how the North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Humberside Police Forces propose to work together, on a more formalised basis, over the next three years.

It sets out the nature of joint working as agreed by the four chief constables of the region and the four police authorities of Yorkshire and the Humber. The document provides a framework of how the four forces will work together to build capacity and capability in specialist and strategic areas of policing.

The aspirations of joint working are to provide a region-wide policy to make our roads safer, tackle serious and organised crime, and be fully prepared to manage major incidents across Yorkshire and the Humber.

Background

The events that led to the four police forces in the region to examine working together began in 2004 when, the then Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, asked the HM Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC) to conduct a comprehensive assessment into the ability of the police service to provide effective and sustainable protective services to a common standard in the future.

The resulting ‘Closing the Gap’ report questioned whether the existing force structure was fit for purpose in the 21st Century. The report identified areas where there was the greatest need for improvement in protective services, such as counter terrorism, serious and organised crime and strategic roads policing, amongst others.

The four forces of Yorkshire and the Humber were amongst the first in England and Wales to study various options of how best to facilitate a successful amalgamation. At the same time, investigations were underway to improve the delivery of protective services across the region.

As John Reid became Home Secretary, the earlier plans to amalgamate the police forces were reconsidered. However, the four forces of Yorkshire and the Humber had already identified areas of work that could benefit from a collaborative approach, particularly in improving capacity and capability within protective services, and the decision was taken to continue to explore the opportunities of joint working.

This was formalised with the creation of the Regional Chief Constables’ Group (RCCG) and the Joint Police Authorities Committee (JPAC). Together they outlined the principles to guide joint working to enhance and complement - not replace or compromise - the policing delivered locally by individual forces, to communities within Yorkshire and the Humber.

The Regional Programme Team was set up to transform the joint vision into a reality. Led by the Regional Programme Director and staff seconded from each of the four forces, the role of the programme team is to manage, monitor and evaluate current and future joint projects.

The Four Forces

The areaas covered by the four regional Police forces.

See the area covered by the four regional Police forces in more detail.