Staffordshire Police

pre-1968 Staffordshire police helmet, in the collection of Staffordshire County Museum

A combined force covering Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, called Staffordshire County and Stoke-on-Trent Constabulary, was established on 1 January 1968, as a merger of the Staffordshire County Police and Stoke-on-Trent City Police. This force lost areas to the new West Midlands Police in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 and adopted a shorter name.[2]

Under proposals made by the Home Secretary on 6 February 2006, it would have merged with Warwickshire Constabulary, West Mercia Constabulary and West Midlands Police to form a single strategic force for the West Midlands region.[3] However these plans have not been taken forward largely due to public opposition.

For 2005/06 Staffordshire police topped the Home Office chart as being the best performing police force in England and Wales.[4]

Staffordshire Police is one of two forces involved in the Central Motorway Police Group along with West Midlands Police. This unit provides roads policing for the motorway network in the West Midlands (mainly M5, M6 and M42). Staffordshire Police has no other roads policing capacity; this was disbanded in 1999 during the major force reorganisation that also saw the mounted branch disbanded.

In September 2008, the force announced that it intended to vacate the Cannock Road site and sell it for housing development, moving HQ staff to Lanchester Court, next to the existing Weston Road premises.[5][6]

Staffordshire Police Authority, a separate organisation charged with oversight of the force, had 9 councillors (drawn from both Staffordshire County Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council), 3 justices of the peace, and 5 independent members. It was abolished in November 2012.[7]

• 1842–1857: John Hayes Hatton
• 1857–??: Lt-Col Gilbert Hogg
• 1888–1929: George Augustus Anson
• 1929–1951: Colonel Sir Herbert Hunter
• 1951–1960: George William Richard Hearn
• 1960–1964: Stanley Edwards Peck
• 1964–1977: Arthur Rees (previously Chief Constable of Denbighshire, 1957-64)
• 1977–1996: Charles Henry Kelly
• 1996–2006: John Giffard
• 2006–2007: David Swift
• 2007–2009: Chris Sims
• 2009–2015: Mike Cunningham
• 2015–2017: Jane Sawyers
• 2017- Gareth Morgan[8]
• 2019-2020 : Nick Baker

The Police Roll of Honour Trust lists and commemorates all British police officers killed in the line of duty, and since its establishment in 1984 has erected over 38 memorials to some of those officers.

The following officers of Staffordshire Police are listed by the Trust as having died attempting to prevent, stop or solve a crime, since the turn of the 20th century:[9]

• PC William Ezra Price, 1903 (fatally injured attempting to arrest three men)
• PC Brinley James Booth, 1946 (bludgeoned to death while attempting to arrest a suspect)
• PC John David Taylor, 1986 (pushed out of a building by a suspect)

Staffordshire Police van

The Staffordshire Police Cadet scheme aims to strengthen links between the police and young people and promote good citizenship. The programs Chief Officer is Chief Superintendent Elliot Sharrad William. The programs Deputy Chief Officer is also the DCO (Deputy Chief Officer) of the Special Constabulary; the cadets force also has many Special Constables, Regular Constables and PSV's (Police Service Volunteers) that assist in the running of the units.

The Volunteer Police Cadet Scheme was set up by PCC Matthew Ellis in 2014 after he watched a television program on the BBC's CBBC.

It has a ranking system similar to that of the Special Constabulary. This ranking system contains a head cadet, deputy head cadet, section leaders, and then the rank of cadet. There is also a ranking system for the volunteer leaders. This contains a unit commander, deputy unit commander, leaders, young leaders. The rank insignia is the same as the Special Constabulary in the sense of using bars to represent the rank (for example the rank of Section Leader is equal to the rank of Sergeant and has the same Insignia as one bar on each shoulder).{[10]}

In November 2012, the first Staffordshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Ellis, was elected. The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and the individual elected is responsible for reducing crime and making the area they represent safer. The PCC decides how much council tax people will pay towards community safety services and policing and is personally accountable for all the public money spent.

• List of police forces in the United Kingdom
• Policing in the United Kingdom

• Staffordshire Police
• Staffordshire Police and Crime Commissioner
• Staffordshire Police Cadets