West Midlands Police
West Midlands Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Midlands in the U.K..
The force covers an area of with 2.93million inhabitants, which includes the cities of Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and also the Black Country. In 2020, there were 6,846 officers, 484 police community support officers, and 219 volunteer special constables.
The force is temporaily led by Deputy Chief Constable Scott Green, following the retirement of Craig Guildford in January 2026. The force area is divided into ten [|Local Policing Areas], each being served by four core policing teams – [|Response], [|Neighbourhood], [|CID] and Priority Crime – with the support of a number of specialist crime teams. These specialist teams include [|MCU], [|traffic] and a [|firearms unit].
West Midlands Police was a partner, alongside Staffordshire Police, in the Central Motorway Police Group which was recently disbanded and the officers returned to their respective forces.
History
Regional policing in the West Midlands prior to 1974
Prior to the formation of West Midlands Police as it is known today, the area now covered by the force was served by a total of six smaller constabularies. These constabularies were as follows:- Birmingham City Police 1839–1974: Established in 1839 following an outbreak of Chartist rioting that the Metropolitan Police had to help quell, officers from Birmingham City Police first took to the streets on 20 November of that year. Initially with a strength of 260 officers paid at a rate of 17 shillings a week, the constabulary expanded to keep pace with the growth of the city with the final areas to be added before the force's amalgamation in West Midlands Police being the Hollywood area.
- Coventry Police 1836–1974: Formed with the Municipal Corporations Act in 1836, Coventry Police was initially only twenty officers with the support of a single sergeant and one inspector. The force reached a strength of 137 officers by 1914 and continued to grow until in 1969 it was merged with the Warwickshire and Coventry Constabulary, part of which it remained until the formation of West Midlands Police.
- Dudley Borough Police 1920–1966: Formerly part of the Worcestershire Constabulary, Dudley gained its own police force on 1 April 1920 following a review by His Majesty's Inspector that had suggested previous policing arrangements were unsatisfactory. Dudley Borough Police remained independent until the Royal Commission in 1960 which resulted in its inclusion as part of the newly formed West Midlands Constabulary.
- Walsall Borough Police 1832–1966: Moving away from a 'watch' system, Walsall Borough Police were formed on 6 July 1832 with an initial strength of only one superintendent and three constables. As with the other regional forces, Walsall Borough Police expanded with the area's population and in 1852 appointed its first two detectives. The force took on its first female recruits in 1918 and in the 1960s became one of the first forces to issues its officers with personal radios. As with Dudley's police force, Walsall Borough Police became part of the West Midlands Constabulary following the Royal Commission.
- West Midlands Constabulary 1966–1974: Lasting only eight years, West Midlands Constabulary was a newly formed force encompassing a number of smaller borough forces including Dudley Borough Police, Walsall Borough Police, Wolverhampton Borough Police and parts of Staffordshire and Worcestershire Constabularies. The creation of the West Midlands Constabulary was the consequence of 1960's Royal Commission into policing.
- Wolverhampton Borough Police 1837–1966: The formation of Wolverhampton Borough Police was approved on 3 August 1837 under the condition that the strength of the force not exceed sixteen men. The Police Act 1839 saw Staffordshire County Police taking over policing in Wolverhampton with Wolverhampton Borough Police regaining responsibility for policing the town in 1848. At the turn of the 20th century the force was 109 strong, reaching a highpoint of around 300 before the force became part of the short lived West Midlands Constabulary in 1966.
Establishment of West Midlands Police
Controversies and allegations of corruption
Between 1974 and 1989, the force operated the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad. It was disbanded after allegations of endemic misconduct, leading to a series of unsafe convictions. These included allegations that officers had falsified confessions in witness statements, denied suspects access to solicitors and used torture such as "plastic bagging" to partially suffocate suspects in order to extract confessions. They were alleged to have abused payments to informers. A series of around 40 prosecutions failed in the late 1980s as defendants showed that evidence had or may have been tampered with. West Yorkshire Police led an investigation which led to a small number of internal disciplinary proceedings, but did not recommend any prosecutions for lack of evidence. However, over 60 convictions secured from their investigations have now been quashed, including those of the Birmingham Six.West Midlands Police had two serious firearms incidents, in 1980 and 1985. In 1980, David Pagett held his pregnant girlfriend as hostage while resisting arrest by the police. Officers returned fire, and shot her. Police had initially tried to claim that Pagett has shot her, but it became clear that it was police bullets that had caused her death. In 1985, John Shorthouse was arrested by West Midlands police for questioning about armed robberies in South Wales. His house was then searched. His five-year-old son, John, was shot by police searching under the child's bed. An internal inquiry was held, and as a result, use of firearms was restricted to a specialised and trained unit.
Allegations of bribery and corruption were made in 1994 by World in Action, an investigative current affairs TV programme. The convicted criminal David Harris alleged that West Midlands police officers had demanded payments of more than £200,000 to keep criminals including himself away from prosecutions. Other allegations from police officers focused on officers attempting to persuade others to accept bribes. The CID was the focus of an investigation by Leicestershire Police at the request of the Police Complaints Authority.
2000s and onwards
Under proposals announced by the then Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, on 6 February 2006, West Midlands Police would have merged with Staffordshire Police, West Mercia Constabulary and Warwickshire Constabulary to form a single strategic force for the West Midlands region.This, along with a number of other mergers which would have cut the number of forces in England and Wales from 43 to 24, were abandoned in July 2006 after widespread opposition from police and the public.
Because of prison overcrowding in October 2006, up to 44 prison cells at Steelhouse Lane police station in Birmingham were made available to house inmates as part of Operation Safeguard and in accordance with an agreement between West Midlands Police and HM Prison Service.
In October 2008, the Chief Constable Sir Paul Scott-Lee announced he would not be renewing his contract in May 2009, after seven years in the post. His replacement was Chris Sims.
The force attracted controversy in 2010 when Project Champion, a £3million scheme to install a network of CCTV cameras in the predominantly Muslim areas of Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook, came under fire from local residents and civil rights organisations. A total of 218 cameras had been planned for installation but the project was abandoned following concerns over their legality and objections from residents and local councillors that they had not been consulted by the force.
Between April and September 2010, WMP budgets were cut by £3.4million as part of a programme to reduce spending by £50M over four years. In response to the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review, Chief Constable Sims said WMP would need to reduce spending by up to £123million over the same period.
In 2010, the force implemented regulation A19, requiring officers with 30 or more years service to retire, in response to government funding cuts. The regulation, used by 15 forces to make emergency savings, led to 591 WMP officers being forced to retire. Some of these officers later took WMP to an employment tribunal, alleging age discrimination. In 2014 the tribunal found the regulation to be unlawful. In 2015, 498 former WMP officers were seeking compensation. The ruling was later overturned by the Employment Appeal Tribunal, whose decision was upheld in the Court of Appeal in 2017.
Plans to privatise parts of the force were halted by Bob Jones, the force's first Police and Crime Commissioner, upon taking office in 2012.
Chief Constable Chris Sims was reappointed to a second three-year term in 2013, then stepped down at the beginning of 2016. He was succeeded by Dave Thompson, who had previously been Deputy Chief Constable.
In March 2021, Oliver Banfield, a probationary officer with West Midlands Police, was convicted of assault by beating after using techniques taught in police training to attack a woman while off-duty. Banfield was sentenced to a 14-week curfew and ordered to pay £500 compensation to his victim. Former Leader of the Opposition Harriet Harman described the fact Banfield did not receive a custodial sentence as “proof... that system fails women and protects men”. After the conviction, the Crown Prosecution Service apologised for initially declining to charge Banfield. In a May 2021 hearing, Banfield was found guilty of gross misconduct and banned from policing for life.
A 2021 investigation by Newsnight and The Law Society Gazette found that alleged hate crimes in which the victim was a police officer were significantly more likely to result in a successful prosecution across a number of force areas including the West Midlands. The investigation found that in the year ending March 2020, crimes against police officers and staff constituted 7 percent of hate incidents recorded by West Midlands Police, but resulted in 43 percent of hate crimes convictions. In March 2022, a WMP constable resigned after having been found to have fabricated the death of a partner in order to receive bereavement leave and other benefits; Chief Constable Thompson said the officer would have been dismissed for gross misconduct had he not resigned.
In November 2023, His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary placed West Midlands police under "special measures", and the force's monitoring level was enhanced, as it was "not effectively addressing the inspectorate's concerns". The inspectors reported that the force was not carrying out investigations effectively or managing the public's risk from known sex offenders. The chief constable and West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster said he completely disagreed with the decision.