Lothian and Borders Police was the territorial police force for the Scottish council areas of the City of Edinburgh,

East Lothian East Lothian (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...

Midlothian Midlothian (; ) is registration county, lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh council ar ...

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

and

West Lothian West Lothian (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, bordering (in a clockwise direction) the City of Edinburgh council area, Scottish Borders, South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire and Falkirk (council area), Falkirk. The modern counci ...

between 1975 and 2013. The force's headquarters were in Fettes Avenue,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. Lothian and Borders Police was formed on 16 May 1975 by an amalgamation of Berwick, Roxburgh and Selkirk Constabulary, Edinburgh City Police and The Lothians and Peebles Constabulary. The force had 2,905 officers and 1,384 support staff as of March 2008. The force's last Chief Constable was David Strang who replaced Paddy Tomkins on 29 March 2007. An

Act of the Scottish Parliament An act of the Scottish Parliament () is primary legislation made by the Scottish Parliament. The power to create acts was conferred to the Parliament by section 28 of the Scotland Act 1998 following the successful 1997 Scottish devolution ref ...

, the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, created a single Police Service of Scotland—known as

Police Scotland Police Scotland (), officially the Police Service of Scotland (), is the national police force of Scotland. It was formed in 2013, through the merging of eight regional police forces in Scotland, as well as the specialist services of the Scottis ...

—with effect from 1 April 2013. This merged the eight former regional police forces in Scotland (including Lothian & Borders Police), together with the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, into a single service covering the whole of Scotland. Police Scotland has its headquarters at the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan in

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

Divisions

The Lothian and Borders Police area stretched from Blackridge in the west to

Newcastleton Newcastleton, also called Copshaw Holm, is a village in Liddesdale, the Scottish Borders, a few miles from the border with England, on the Liddel Water. It is within the Counties of Scotland, county of Roxburghshire. It is the site of Hermitag ...

in the south. It was split into four territorial divisions, and several other non-territorial divisions for specialist and administrative roles.

Territorial Divisions

A Division covered the

City of Edinburgh council area The City of Edinburgh Council (Scottish Gaelic: ''Comhairle Baile Dhùn Èideann'') is the Local government in Scotland, local government authority covering the City of Edinburgh council area. Almost half of the council area is the built-up are ...

, and was created in 2002 following the amalgamation of the City of Edinburgh's three previous divisions. It was the largest territorial division in terms of manpower and population. Its headquarters were St Leonards Police Station. E Division covered

and

, stretching from the Edinburgh City Bypass to

Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the Anglo–Scottish border, English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and ...

in the east. Its headquarters were in

Dalkeith Dalkeith ( ; , ) is a town in Midlothian, Scotland, on the River Esk. It was granted a burgh of barony in 1401 and a burgh of regality in 1541. The settlement of Dalkeith grew southwestwards from its 12th-century castle (now Dalkeith Pala ...

. F Division covered

with its headquarters in Livingston. G Division was the largest territorial division in Lothian and Borders Police and covered the

. It was approximately twice the size of all the other divisions combined, bordering

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in the south. It covered a predominantly rural area featuring rolling country side and isolated population areas. Its headquarters were in

Hawick Hawick ( ; ; ) is a town in the Scottish Borders council areas of Scotland, council area and counties of Scotland, historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east o ...

Non-territorial Divisions

C Division (Corporate Services) comprised such departments as Corporate Communications, Safer Communities, Complaints and Conduct and Business Improvement. H Division was concerned with Personnel and Human Resources functions. J Division was concerned with Secondments. N Division was styled the "Criminal Justice Administration Department". O Division (Operations) provided specialist operations support to the force. It was predominantly made up of the Roads Policing Units (traffic) which were based at the headquarters of each division. They also provided specialist Firearms and Public Order (Riot Police) support to all divisions. Also within O Division were the forces Dog Handlers. O Division also included The Force Communications Centre (FCC). P Division was responsible for training and career development. Training of probationary constables was carried out jointly by the Scottish Police College based at Tulliallan Castle, "on the job" in the force area. Officers transferring from other Scottish forces were not required to attend the college, unlike those transferring from the rest of the United Kingdom, who were required to attend a conversion course to allow for adjustment to Scots law. S Division was responsible for the financial management of the force. X Division provided investigative support to the entire force. While detectives may have been allocated to assist other divisions as their main role as detectives, they could be pooled to provide assistance whether their specialist skills are required. Also known as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) they were the detectives of the force and investigated major crimes as well as everyday crimes such as housebreaking. Z Division was styled the "Central Services Department".

Chief Constables

Chief Constables were: *1975–1983 : Sir John Henry Orr *1983–1996 : Sir William Sutherland *1996–2002 : Sir Roy Cameron *2002–2007 : Paddy Tomkins *2007–2013 : David Strang

References

External links