Surrey Police


Surrey Police, formerly known as Surrey Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Surrey in South East England.
The force is currently led by Chief Constable Tim De Meyer.
The force has its headquarters at Mount Browne, Guildford, Surrey.

History

On 1 January 1851, the Surrey Constabulary began its policing of the county with a total of 70 officers, the youngest of whom was 14 years old. The first Chief Constable was Henry Cadogan Hastings, who served in this capacity for 48 years. Originally Guildford, Reigate and Godalming had separate borough police forces. The Reigate and Guildford forces were merged into Surrey's in 1943.

Today

Part of the present force area was originally part of the Metropolitan Police District, and was only transferred to the control of Surrey Police from the Metropolitan Police in 2000. This includes the boroughs of Epsom and Ewell, Spelthorne and part of Reigate and Banstead and Elmbridge. Surrey Police was divided into three divisions but in 2010 became a single division, and in March 2014 was policed by 1,938 regular police officers, in addition to 182 Special Constables and 153 Police Community Support Officers. Surrey has one of the lowest crime rates in England and Wales. It has now reverted to three area divisions.
For 2017/18, Surrey Police had a total expenditure of £224.1m, of which £183.2m went on employee costs, £27.3m on supplies and services, £8.8m on premises, and £4.8m on transport. It also had £11.1m of income, resulting in "gross expenditure" of £213m.
Surrey Police has four main divisions: three area divisions, Northern, Eastern, and Western; and a specialist crime/ops division. Within the three division are multiple borough teams. Typically each borough will have a Neighbourhood Specialist Team and a Neighbourhood Policing Team. These borough teams are supported by investigative teams which span the whole division, this being the Criminal Investigation Department and the Safeguarding Investigation Unit.
The specialist crime division is often referred to as OPS, and includes specialist units. This being the Roads Policing Unit, Tactical Firearms Unit, Specialist Dog Handlers, Crime Scene Investigation Officers.
There are further force wide teams, some of which are now joint teams with Sussex Police, including the Paedophile and OnLine Investigation Team, Major Crime Investigation Team, Sexual Offences Investigation Team and then a range of support services typical of many forces.
In November 2023, Surrey Police announced it would have to move out of Reigate police station due to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete being discovered in the building. Repairs are expected to take up to two years to complete. The station will move to the former Surrey Fire and Rescue Service headquarters at Wray Park in the interim.
2011/122012/132013/142014/152015/162016/172017/182018/19
Police Officers1,9741,9701,9381,8631,9381,9861,9941,995
PCSOs228210153123119120106126
Police Staff1,7151,6901,5921,4971,4171,4451,4491,424
Designated Officers306295247197176123126126
Total FTE personnel4,2234,1653,9303,6803,6503,6743,6753,671
Special Constables345273182122109118135155

Notes:

1. All figures are official Home Office figures.

2. All figures are full-time equivalents apart from for special constables which are a headcount.

3. Figures apply to 31 March of that year, e.g., 2008/09 figures are for 31 March 2009.

4. Designated Officers that are not PCSOs have one of three roles: investigation officer, detention officer or escort officer.

Senior people

Police and crime commissioners

The first election for Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner took place on 15 November 2012. Kevin Hurley, who was a retired Metropolitan Police borough commander, was elected. He defeated candidates from Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, UKIP, plus an independent.
The second election took place on 5 May 2016. The Conservative candidate, David Munro, was elected. He defeated Jamie Goldrick, independent; Kevin Hurley; Camille Juliff, independent; Howard Kaye, Labour; Paul Kennedy, Liberal Democrat; and Julia Searle, UKIP.
Lisa Townsend, Conservative, is the current PCC. She was first elected in 2021 and re elected in May 2024.

Chief constables

Chief constables have been:
  • 1851–1899: Captain Henry Cadogan Hastings
  • 1899–1930: Captain Mowbray Lees Sant
  • 1930–1946: Major Geoffrey Nicholson
  • 1946–1956: Joseph Simpson
  • 1956–1968: Herman Rutherford
  • 1968–1982: Sir Peter Matthews
  • 1982–1991: Brian Hayes
  • 1991–1997: David Williams
  • 1998–2000: Ian Blair
  • 2000–2004: Denis O'Connor
  • 2004–2008: Robert Quick
  • 2009–2011: Mark Rowley
  • 2012–2015: Lynne Owens
  • 2016–2019: Nick Ephgrave
  • 2019–2023: Gavin Stephens
  • 2023–present: Tim De Meyer

    Ranks

Surrey Police has the following ranks. Every rank from constable to chief superintendent has a detective equivalent. These confer no additional powers or authority from their uniform equivalents.
Surrey has air operations covered by the National Police Air Service. The helicopter, call sign NPAS15, which predominately covers the Surrey Policing area is based at Redhill Aerodrome and also covers the Sussex, West Hampshire and Essex Area.

Surrey Police Museum

To help celebrate its 150th anniversary, a museum portraying the history of the Force was opened at Mount Browne, the Surrey Police's headquarters in Guildford. Surrey resident Sir Michael Caine, CBE, opened the museum on 22 October 2001. Displays included artefacts and touch-screen technology, tracing the history of the Force up to the present day.

Training of new recruits

Surrey Police now operates the PLC course method of training and recruitment. This course ensures that potential recruits already possess knowledge of police law before applying to join Surrey Police. The course is run by several colleges in Surrey, as well as the University of Portsmouth. Although the PLC certificate can be obtained with a pass mark of 40% in the final examination, Surrey Police require a pass mark of 60% to become eligible to reach the application stage of the recruitment process.
The course allows the training phase of a police officer to be reduced by 15 weeks.

Complaints

There were 710 complaint cases for Surrey Police in 2009/10. This is a 206% change on the 2003/04 figure. This is the second highest increase of all 43 forces in England and Wales. For comparison, the average change across forces in England and Wales over the same period was 113%. Surrey Police have been condemned by a coroner's jury over the death of Terry Smith who was restrained and put in a spit hood and kept in restraints for over two hours despite saying repeatedly that he could not breathe.
In June 2024 the force referred itself to the police complaints watchdog following an incident in which a police vehicle was used to ram a calf that was loose in the streets of Staines. Home Secretary James Cleverly said he would be asking for an urgent explanation, describing the actions as "heavy handed".The RSPCA said the police response, which saw the animal hit twice by a marked vehicle in Staines-on-Thames, "appears disproportionate".

Proposed merger with Sussex Police

Under controversial merger plans announced by then Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, in 2006, the number of police forces in England and Wales would have been cut from 43 to 24. Proposals put forward on 20 March 2006 would have seen the Surrey force merged with Sussex Police to form a single strategic police force for the area.
Police authorities had until 7 April 2006 to respond to the plans; the Home Secretary then announced on 11 April 2006 that Surrey Police and Sussex Police would merge by 2008. However, on 12 July 2006, a Government minister announced that all proposed police merger plans in England and Wales were on hold.
Although, as of 2018, there are no plans to merge Surrey and Sussex Police into one force, the two organisations do have certain specialist departments which are shared across both force areas such as the firearms & roads policing units and alongside major investigations.

Crime and detection rates

Surrey has the joint seventh lowest crime rate of the 43 force areas in England and Wales, with 55 crimes per 1,000 population. In the year to the end of March 2012 there were 61,757 crimes recorded in Surrey, according to Office for National Statistics figures published in July 2012. This is a 5.2% drop on 2010/11 when there were 65,125 crimes recorded in Surrey.
Despite having the joint seventh lowest crime rate, the detection rate for offences was the joint second lowest of the 43 forces in England and Wales, with a rate of 20 percent. The average for England and Wales was 27 percent.
TotalViolence against the personSexual offencesRobberyBurglaryOffences against vehiclesOther theft offencesFraud and forgeryCriminal damageDrug offencesOther offences
Surrey 20272721106171589254
Surrey 20282625106172299148
England and Wales 2744302113112122139268
England and Wales 2844302113112224149469