Gloucestershire Constabulary
Gloucestershire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire in South West England.
The force formerly covered the area of South Gloucestershire, however this was transformed to the newly formed Avon and Somerset Constabulary in 1974.
History
The force was founded in 1839, six hours after Wiltshire Constabulary, making it the second rural police force formed in Britain. The force in its present form dates from 1 April 1974, when the southern part of Gloucestershire became part of the County of Avon and thus covered by the newly formed Avon and Somerset Constabulary.In 1965, the force had an establishment of 1,010 and an actual strength of 867.
Between 2010 and 2019, the force lost 238 officers due to Government budget cuts.
From 2013 to 2019, specialist teams – roads, firearms and police dogs – operated in a "tri-force" collaboration with the Avon and Somerset, and Wiltshire forces. In April 2019, this arrangement was ended by the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner, Martin Surl, following Avon and Somerset Police withdrawing from the alliance.
In 2019, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services rated the force as 'inadequate' for crime reporting arrangements, after finding that over 7,900 incidents of crime in the county per year, and only 69.2% of violent crimes were recorded accurately. The inspection also found 38% of victims were not informed when crime reports were cancelled.
In 2020, the force opened a new police academy, the Sabrina Centre, on the grounds of the former Berkeley Nuclear Power Station. This coincided with the force offering new Police Constable Degree Apprenticeships in partnership with the University of South Wales.
Chief constables
- 1839–1865: Anthony Thomas Lefroy
- 1865–1910: Admiral Henry Christian
- 1910–1917: Lieutenant Colonel Richard Chester-Master
- 1918–1937: Major F.L. Stanley Clarke
- 1937–1959: Colonel William Francis Henn
- 1959–1962: John Gaskain
- 1963–1975: Edwin White
- 1975–1979: Brian Weigh
- 1979–1987: Leonard Soper
- 1987–1993: Albert Pacey
- 1993–2001: Anthony J.P. Butler
- 2001–2010: Timothy Brain
- 2010–2012: Tony Melville
- 2012–2013: Michael Matthews
- 2013–2017: Suzette Davenport
- 2017–present : Rod Hansen
- 2024-present: Maggie Blyth
Officers killed in the line of duty
Since 1817 the following officers of Gloucestershire Constabulary were killed while attempting to prevent or stop a crime in progress:
- Parish constable Henry Thompson, 1817
- Police sergeant Samuel Beard, 1861
- Police sergeant William Morris, 1895
Operations
, the force consisted of 1,301 police officers, 119 police community support officers, 114 special constables and 397 police support volunteers.
Day-to-day policing in the county is split into 55 local communities, organised by three Local Policing Areas each overseen by a superintendent: Cheltenham and Tewkesbury, Gloucester and the Forest of Dean, and Cotswolds and Stroud. Each of these areas contains a Local Policing Team, providing an initial response to incidents, as well as a Neighbourhood Policing Team, which manage local concerns.
Special Constabulary
, the force had 113 special constables, who are mainly embedded in the Local Policing Teams and Neighbourhood Policing teams. A number of officers have been upskilled in rural crime and the use of 4x4 off-road vehicles to enhance the force's capability in this area.Mounted unit
Gloucestershire Constabulary introduced a mounted police unit based at Highnam Court for a trial period in 2016, following the conclusion of an eighteen-month study in 2014 by both the University of Oxford and the RAND Corporation. The study surveyed whether the presence of mounted police on regular neighbourhood patrols would improve community engagement with the police, with results showing that members of the public were six times as likely to engage with police on horseback compared to police on foot patrol.Two horses were initially acquired by Gloucestershire Constabulary from the Metropolitan Police's Mounted Section for the trial unit in 2016, the first horses owned by the force since the 1940s, with the section growing to four horses and three mounted officers by the time the trial concluded in August 2017. The force opted to retain the Mounted Section following the trial; in December 2021, the unit was retained again following a review by Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner Chris Nelson into the cost and overall effectiveness of the unit, which had grown to consist of six horses when the review was undertaken.
PEEL inspection
conducts a periodic police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy inspection of each police service's performance. In its latest PEEL inspection, Gloucestershire Constabulary was rated as follows:| Outstanding | Good | Adequate | Requires Improvement | Inadequate | |
| 2021 rating |
Following the 2021 report, HMICFRS reinspected the force in July 2023. They found the force was still inadequate in the area of "Responding to the Public", however had improved in all other areas previously found "Inadequate".