Gwent Police () is a territorial police force in Wales, responsible for policing the local authority areas of

Blaenau Gwent Blaenau Gwent (; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South East Wales, south-east of Wales. It borders the Local government in Wales, unitary authority areas of Monmouthshire and Torfaen to the east, Caerphilly County Borough ...

Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; , ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley and separated from the Cardiff suburbs of Lisvane and Rhiwbina by Caerphilly Mountain. It is north of Cardiff an ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...

, Newport and

Torfaen Torfaen (; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South East Wales, south-east of Wales. Torfaen is bordered by the county of Monmouthshire to the east, the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Newport, Wales, Newport to t ...

. The force was formed in 1967 by the amalgamation of Monmouthshire Constabulary and Newport Borough Police. In 1974 its area was realigned to cover the new administrative county of Gwent, and in 1996, it was expanded again to cover the former Rhymney Valley district area that had become part of the

county borough. , the force has 1,308

police officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...

s, 70 special constables, 115 police community support officers (PCSO), 40 police support volunteers (PSV), and 647 staff.

Organisation

Governance

Like most police forces in England and Wales, Gwent Police is overseen by the elected Gwent Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), who replaced the former police authority of councillors, magistrates and lay members in 2012. The PCC is currently Jane Mudd.

Structure

Gwent Police has two local policing areas: * East – Newport and

* West –

and

These divisions are run practically independently, controlled by a chief superintendent. Both contain three departments, each under a chief inspector; CID, Neighbourhood Operations (providing community officers and local response) and Neighbourhood Support (including traffic and public order teams, among other things). However, there are still some departments that cover the whole force, including the dog section, rural crime team, and training functions. The force has its headquarters at Llantarnam in

Cwmbran Cwmbran ( ; , also in use as an alternative spelling in English) is a town in the county borough of Torfaen in South Wales. Lying within the Historic counties of Wales, historic boundaries of Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire, Cwmbran was ...

Collaborations

Gwent Police has participated in collaborations with other agencies to improve service and reduce costs at a time of government cuts. Examples of collaborations include: * Joint Response Unit (with

Welsh Ambulance Service The Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust (), or simply the Welsh Ambulance Service, is the national ambulance service for Wales. As of April 2025, it has 3,500 staff providing ambulance and related services to the 3 million residents o ...

) – where a special constable works alongside a paramedic or technician. Funded by the

and staffed by Gwent Police Special Constabulary. * Joint Firearms Unit (with Dyfed–Powys Police and South Wales Police) * Tarian (with Dyfed-Powys Police and South Wales Police) – regional organised crime unit. * Wales Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit (with Dyfed-Powys Police, South Wales Police and North Wales Police) * South Wales Joint Scientific Investigation Unit (with South Wales Police) – processes all forensic submissions * Air support is provided by the National Police Air Service (NPAS) – mainly using NPAS47, a Eurocopter EC135 Police Helicopter based at MOD St Athan, supported by NPAS43 from

Almondsbury Almondsbury () is a large village and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England. It is situated on the A38 road in the Avon Green Belt north of Bristol city centre. It is adjacent to junction 16 of the M5 motorway and Almondsbury Interc ...

near Bristol. * Missing Children's Unit (with local councils) * Youth Offending Service (with local councils, healthcare bodies, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), and Probation Service). * Joint Legal Services (with South Wales Police) * Joint Printing Unit (with South Wales Police) * Record Management (with South Wales Police)

Police stations and offices

Gwent Police operate both fully-fledged police stations, and several offices and shops that serve as points of contact with the public. For example, the police station at Abertillery closed due to budget cuts, but the police still maintain a presence at the local fire station. In Abergavenny, neighbourhood officers are available at a "one stop shop" shared with Monmouthshire County Council. On the other hand, several buildings are owned for operational or administrative purposes that are not open to the public, including the force headquarters in

. Newport Central police station is the only front desk service that is available 24 hours a day, a custody suite is based at the station. Several front offices and stations have been partially or fully closed following a review of the function and role of front desks in police stations.

Chief constables

* 19671981 : William Farley * 19811994 : John Over * 19941996 : Sir Anthony Burden * 19971999 : Francis J. Wilkinson * 1999? : Keith Turner * 20042008 : Michael Tonge * 20082010 : Mick Giannasi * 20112013 : Carmel Napier * 20132017 : Jeff Farrar * 2017June 2019 : Julian Williams * June 2019present : Pam Kelly

Media engagement

In 2009, Gwent Police worked with film maker Peter Watkins-Hughes to create the short film '' Cow'' as part of a campaign to stop texting while driving. The film earned honours in the ''

Advertising Age ''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in ...

's'' weekly Creativity Top 5 video and became an overnight worldwide internet hit after being shown on the USA '' The Today Show'' television show. In 2019, a mugshot of a wanted drug dealer that Gwent Police had posted to

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

received than 89,000 comments, many of which mocked his hairstyle. Gwent Police warned that abusive comments could be against the law.

References

External links

*
Gwent Police
at HMICFRS {{UK home nations police forces Blaenau Gwent Caerphilly County Borough Monmouthshire Newport, Wales Torfaen Government agencies established in 1967 Organizations established in 1967 1967 establishments in Wales Police forces of Wales Organisations based in Newport, Wales Welsh police authorities Gwent (county)