North Wales Police () is the territorial police force responsible for policing

North Wales North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdon ...

. Its headquarters are in

Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay () is a town, Community (Wales), community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic counties of Wales, historic county boundaries of Denbighshire (h ...

. , the force has 1,510

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, 170 special constables, 182

police community support officer A police community support officer (PCSO; ), or as written in legislation Community Support Officer (CSO; ), is a uniformed member of police staff in England and Wales, a role created by Section 38(2) of the Police Reform Act 2002, which was giv ...

s (PCSO), 71 police support volunteers (PSV), and 984 staff.

History

Gwynedd Constabulary was formed in 1950 by the amalgamation of Caernarvonshire Constabulary, Anglesey Constabulary, and Merionethshire Constabulary under the Police Act 1946. In 1965, the force had an establishment of 308 and an actual strength of 296. Flintshire Constabulary and Denbighshire Constabulary were merged into the force in 1967, but it retained its existing name. On 1 April 1974, the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

created an administrative county of

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

covering part of the police area (broadly equivalent to the original Gwynedd Constabulary area). To avoid confusion, the force was renamed North Wales Police. Under proposals made by the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...

on 6 February 2006, the force would merge with

Dyfed-Powys Police Dyfed-Powys Police (; DPP) is the territorial police force in Wales policing Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire (which make up the former administrative area of Dyfed) and the unitary authority of Powys (covering Brecknockshire, Ra ...

Gwent Police Gwent Police () is a territorial police force in Wales, responsible for policing the local authority areas of Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen. The force was formed in 1967 by the amalgamation of Monmouthshire ...

and

South Wales Police South Wales Police (; SWP) is one of the four territorial police forces in Wales. It is headquartered in Bridgend. The force was formed as South Wales Constabulary on 1 June 1969, by the amalgamation of the former Glamorgan Constabulary, Car ...

to form a single strategic force for all of Wales. The proposals were later shelved. In May 2011, North Wales Police completed a major restructuring, moving from three territorial divisions to a single North Wales-wide policing function.

Governance

Since November 2012, the force has been overseen by the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner. It was previously overseen by a police authority, consisting of 17 members (nine councillors, three magistrates and five independent members). The councillors were appointed by a joint committee from

Anglesey Anglesey ( ; ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms the bulk of the Principal areas of Wales, county known as the Isle of Anglesey, which also includes Holy Island, Anglesey, Holy Island () and some islets and Skerry, sker ...

Conwy Conwy (, ), previously known in English as Conway, is a walled market town, community and the administrative centre of Conwy County Borough in North Wales. The walled town and castle stand on the west bank of the River Conwy, facing Deganwy ...

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, Flintshire to the east, Wrexham to the southeast, Powys to the south, and Gwynedd and Conwy to the west. Rhyl is the largest town, and Ruthi ...

Flintshire Flintshire () is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, the Dee Estuary to the north-east, the English county of Cheshire to the east, Wrexham County Borough to the south, and Denbighshire to the west. ...

and

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

councils.

Collaborations

North Wales Police is a partner in the following collaboration: * North West Police Underwater Search & Marine Unit * North Wales and Cheshire Firearms Alliance * Wales Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit * Cheshire and North Wales Police Dogs

Controversy

In the 2000s, North Wales Police attracted a great deal of media attention, largely attributed to its former chief constable, Richard Brunstrom, who was a controversial figure, mainly because of his vocal views on speeding motorists and the legalisation of drugs. ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' newspaper dubbed him the "Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taleban." However, he also earned respect for modernising the force's infrastructure, and learning the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic languages, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh c ...

, actively promoting the normalisation of its use within the force at all levels and conversing publicly through it on numerous occasions. In April 2007, Brunstrom came under fire for an incident in which he showed a photograph of the severed head of a biker in a press meeting without the family's permission, to make a point about road safety. The photo enabled the media to identify the deceased since he was wearing a distinctive T-shirt with an anti-police message on it, which gained much attention during the inquest. Brunstrom maintained (in both the invitation and verbally) that it was a "closed" meeting, and that no details of the picture should have been leaked. ''

Motorcycle News ''MCN'' or ''Motor Cycle News'' is a UK weekly Motorcycle, motorcycling newspaper published by Bauer Verlagsgruppe, Bauer Consumer Media, based in Peterborough, United Kingdom. It claims to be "the world’s biggest weekly motorcycle newspape ...

'' magazine handed in a 1,600 signature petition to the Independent Police Complaints Commission requesting Brunstrom be removed. The IPCC confirmed that it would carry out an independent review into the incident. North Wales Police has also attracted attention due to its investigation into allegations of anti-Welsh comments by TV personality

Anne Robinson Anne Josephine Robinson (born 26 September 1944) is a British journalist and television presenter, best known as the host of BBC game show ''The Weakest Link'' from 2000 to 2012, and again in 2017 for a one-off celebrity special for ''Children ...

and UK Prime Minister

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

. The force was believed to have carried out these investigations following complaints from members of the public. The ten-month investigation into the Prime Minister was dropped on 11 July 2006 due to a lack of evidence. It had cost £1,656, whereas the Anne Robinson investigation cost £3,800. North Wales Police is one of only three forces in England and Wales (the others being neighbouring

and the

British Transport Police British Transport Police (BTP; ) is a national special police force that polices the railway network of England, Wales and Scotland, which consists of over 10,000 miles of track and 3,000 stations and depots. BTP also polices the London Under ...

) to equip their police community support officers with handcuffs, which remains controversial. , North Wales Police had 159 PCSOs. Between April 2017 and April 2019, the Independent Office for Police Conduct twice investigated the circumstances behind the murder of Nicholas Churton. Additionally, a separate inquiry about the allegations made by Ian Lucas, Member of Parliament for Wrexham that he had been misled about the case by Mark Polin, the chief constable.

Chief constables

References

External links

*
North Wales Police
at HMICFRS * {{Authority control Police forces of Wales Gwynedd Organisations based in Conwy County Borough Denbighshire Anglesey Flintshire Wrexham County Borough Government agencies established in 1967 1967 establishments in Wales Welsh police authorities North Wales