Avon and Somerset Police

Avon and Somerset Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement in the five unitary authority areas of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, Somerset, and South Gloucestershire, all in South West England.
, the force had 2,965 police officers, 299 special constables, and 330 police community support officers. The force serves 1.72million people over an area of.
According to a House of Commons Library report, as of March 2023, Avon and Somerset Police had 3,330 Police Constables and 235 Special Constables.

History

The police area covered by Avon & Somerset Police today can trace its policing heritage back to the very start of the modern policing system. The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 created municipal boroughs across England and Wales, each with the power to create a borough police force. Before then, policing was largely unrecognisable from today's system, with watchmen and parish constables providing variable levels of law enforcement, if any, driven largely by magistrates. As a result of the Act the following borough police forces were created within the current Avon and Somerset Police area: Bath City Police, Bristol Constabulary, Bridgwater Borough Police, Wells City Police, Glastonbury Borough Police, Chard Borough Police, and Yeovil Borough Police.
However, outside the new boroughs there was no modern police. Therefore, the government introduced the County Police Act 1839 which permitted county authorities to set up county forces to police areas outside of the boroughs. Following these Acts, Gloucestershire Constabulary was created in 1839, which covered what is now the north part of the Avon & Somerset Constabulary area. But there was still some opposition to the new model of policing, and rural Somerset had no police force until 1856. The County and Borough Police Act 1856 mandated county authorities to set up a constabulary. Somerset Constabulary commenced policing the county in 1856, and Wells City Police and Glastonbury Borough Police were merged into the new county force almost immediately; Yeovil Borough Police followed a year later.
Later in the 19th century the Local Government Act 1888 required that all boroughs with populations of less than 10,000 amalgamate their police force with the adjoining county constabulary. This signalled the end of Chard Borough Police, which merged into Somerset Constabulary on 1 April 1888. In 1940, Bridgwater Borough Police voluntarily became part of Somerset constabulary, with the 20 officers of the borough police becoming Somerset County officers upon merger.
During the 20th century, the number of separate police forces in the United Kingdom was reduced on grounds of efficiency. The Police Act 1964 gave the Home Secretary the power to enforce amalgamations, but this was not required when Somerset Constabulary and Bath City Police voluntarily agreed to merge forming the Somerset and Bath Constabulary on 1 January 1967. This resulted in three police forces covering the current area of the Avon & Somerset Constabulary: Somerset and Bath Constabulary, Bristol Constabulary, and Gloucestershire Constabulary. The next change was on 1 April 1974, with the implementation the Local Government Act 1972, which created Avon and Somerset Constabulary, a merger of Somerset and Bath Constabulary, Bristol Constabulary, and the southern part of Gloucestershire Constabulary.
In 2014, the force announced that in order to reduce its budget, it would close 12 local police stations as part of a planned 36% reduction of the number of buildings it occupied. Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens said these buildings were "outdated" and "under-occupied". The stations were seven in Bristol, and those in Bath, Keynsham, Nailsea, Radstock and Weston-super-Mare.

Proposed mergers

In 2006, the Home Office announced plans to reduce the number of police forces in the UK from 42 to 24 to try to save money. The plans were abandoned later that year due to lack of funding; but the idea has resurfaced many times. The proposal would have seen Avon and Somerset Constabulary merge with Gloucestershire Constabulary, Devon and Cornwall Police, Wiltshire Police and Dorset Police to form a "super police force". The plans were publicly criticised by all the forces involved, stating that it would lead to poor quality service and a reduction in local policing.
In February 2010, plans for a merger of the five South West police forces were re-evaluated by the Home Office in a bid to reduce spending. All of the forces except Avon and Somerset were against an amalgamation. Following this, Avon and Somerset Constabulary began purchasing uniform and equipment without the force crest. Instead, identifying marks just read 'Police' without a force crest or reference to Avon and Somerset.

Chief constables

Colin Port served as the chief constable from January 2005. In November 2012, the police and crime commissioner Sue Mountstevens announced that she would invite applications for the role rather than extending his contract. Port then decided not to re-apply for the position, and retired in March 2013. In January 2013, Port took the PCC to court to seek an injunction to block the interviews of candidates for the post of chief constable, but his case did not succeed.
Nick Gargan was appointed as the next chief constable in March 2013. In mid-May 2014, Gargan was suspended by the PCC following allegations of "inappropriate behaviour towards female officers and staff". The enquiry into the allegations was referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Gargan was reported by the PCC to have denied the allegations. During the first part of Gargan's suspension, the force was run by Deputy Chief Constable John Long. He stood down as acting chief constable at the end of August 2015, and was replaced by Gareth Morgan, who was serving as deputy chief constable for Long. Gargan resigned from the position in October 2015.
Morgan continued serving as acting chief constable after Gargan's resignation until the PCC appointed Andy Marsh, the former chief constable of the Hampshire Constabulary, as the new chief constable in February 2016.
In April 2021, Marsh announced that he would not be renewing his contract in July 2021. Following Marsh's departure, Deputy Chief Constable Sarah Crew took over as Temporary Chief Constable, and was confirmed in the role on 25 November 2021.

Chief constable	Term started	Term ended
Kenneth Steele	1 April 1974	31 August 1979
Brian Weigh	1 September 1979	1983
F.R. Broome	1983	1989
David J. Shattock	1989	1998
Stephen Pilkington	February 1998	December 2004
Colin Port	27 January 2005	December 2012
Rob Beckley	December 2012	March 2013
Nick Gargan	4 March 2013	13 May 2014 16 October 2015
John Long	13 May 2014	31 August 2015
Gareth Morgan	1 September 2015	31 January 2016
Andy Marsh	1 February 2016	1 July 2021
Sarah Crew	2 July 2021 25 November 2021	incumbent

Officers killed in the line of duty

The Police Roll of Honour Trust and Police Memorial Trust list and commemorate all British police officers killed in the line of duty. Since its establishment in 1984, the Police Memorial Trust has erected 50 memorials nationally to some of those officers. Officers killed include:

Superintendent William Balkwill, 1900: Fatally injured while restraining a violent prisoner
DC Reginald Charles Grady, 1945: Collapsed and died during a violent arrest
PC David George Petch, 1981, aged 31: Killed when his traffic patrol car crashed following a speeding car
PC Peter Leonard Deans and PC Jonathan Michael Stapley, 1984: During a car chase their vehicle crashed and Deans and Stapley were fatally injured
WPC Deborah Leat, 1986: During a car chase Leat's vehicle crashed and she was fatally injured
PC Stephen Jones, 1999: Died after being hit by a stolen vehicle he was attempting to stop
Governance

The force is overseen by the Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner, an elected position which replaced the Avon and Somerset Police Authority in November 2012. The police and crime commissioner is scrutinised by the Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Panel, consisting of elected councillors from the police area. The first police and crime commissioner, who was elected on 15 November 2012 and took office on 21 November 2012, was Sue Mountstevens. She had previously been a magistrate and a member of the police authority, and had stood for election as an independent.
Mountstevens was succeeded by Mark Shelford in May 2021. Then in May 2024, Claire Moody was elected to serve as Avon and Somerset PCC.

Organisation

Avon and Somerset headquarters, which it has shared with Avon Fire and Rescue Service since 2017, is in Portishead in North Somerset, close to the B3124. The site was chosen when the Bristol Constabulary's Bridewell Headquarters was deemed to be too small. The Portishead complex cost £31million to construct and was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1995.
In 2014, the force moved into three new police and custody centres in Bridgwater, Patchway and Keynsham. At that time it announced that a third of its other premises would be closed by 2019.
In 2017, Avon and Somerset moved away from a geographically based policing model to a directorate based one. The current directorates are:

Response
Investigations and Operations Support
Neighbourhood and Partnerships
Southwest regional Collaborations