Leicestershire Police

Leicestershire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the counties of Leicestershire and Rutland in England. Its headquarters are at Enderby, Leicestershire.

Leicestershire Police
Leicestershire Police logo
Motto	Protecting our communities
Agency overview
Formed	1839; 185 years ago (1839)
Employees	3256
Annual budget	£169.6 million
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction	Leicestershire, Leicester, Rutland, UK
Map of Leicestershire Police's jurisdiction
Size	2,538 km2 (980 square miles)
Population	Over 1 million
Operational structure
Overseen by	His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services Independent Office for Police Conduct
Headquarters	Enderby
Sworn members	2,089 (of which 304 are Special Constables)[1]
Police and Crime Commissioner responsible	Rupert Matthews, (CON)
Agency executive	Rob Nixon, Chief constable
Child agency	East Midlands Operational Support Service
Local policing units	15
Website
www.leics.police.uk

History

Leicestershire Police was formed in 1839. In 1951 it amalgamated with Rutland Constabulary to form Leicestershire and Rutland Constabulary and in 1967 merged with Leicester City Police to form Leicester and Rutland Constabulary. After the Local Government Act 1972 came into force in 1974 it was renamed Leicestershire Constabulary. In 2012 it changed to Leicestershire Police to be 'in keeping with modern policing'.^[2]

In 1965, Leicestershire and Rutland Constabulary had an establishment of 748 officers and an actual strength of 659.^[3]

Proposals made by the Home Secretary on 20 March 2006, would have seen the force merge with the other four East Midlands forces to form a strategic police force for the entire region. These plans were dropped in 2007.^[4]

In 2015, the force attempted to carry out a covert CCTV face recognition surveillance operation at the Download Festival, in which festival-goers would have their faces compared with a database of custody images, and only informed about the surveillance afterwards. The operation was inadvertently revealed in the magazine Police Oracle before the festival took place.^[5] The aim of the operation was to identify organised gangs of pickpockets deliberately targeting festivals across Europe.

Chief constables

As of November 2022^[update] the chief constable is Rob Nixon.^{[6][failed verification]}

The chief constables of Leicestershire have been:^[7]

• 1839–1876: Frederick Goodyer (first Chief Constable of Leicestershire)^[8]
• 1876–1889: Captain Roland Vincent Sylvester Grimston^[8]
• 1889–1928: Edward Holmes
• 1928–1949: Major Cecil Eagles Lynch-Blosse^[9]
• 1950–1972: John A Taylor^[9]
• 1972–1986: Alan Goodson
• 1986–1993: Michael John Hirst^[9]
• 1993–1997: Keith Povey^[9]
• 1997–2001: David Wyrko^[9]
• 2001–2010: Matthew Baggott
• 2010–2022: Simon Cole^[10]
• 2022–present: Rob Nixon^[11]

Officers killed in the line of duty

See also: List of British police 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.

The following officers of Leicestershire Police are listed by the Trust as having died attempting to prevent, stop or solve a crime:^[12]

• PCs Bryan Reginald Moore and Andrew Carl Munn, 2002 (fatally injured when their vehicle was rammed during a police pursuit)
• Sergeant Brian Dawson, 1975 (shot dead upon arrival at reports of a man firing into the street)
• PC William Adiel Wilkinson, 1903 (shot dead in ambush by men who bore police a grudge)
• PC Thomas George Barrett, 1886 (beaten to death by a man he spoke to about non-payment of a fine).

Local Policing Units

An officer on patrol in 2012

Leicestershire Police Vauxhall Insignia pictured in 2019

The local policing units for Leicestershire Police are as follows:

City:

• City Centre – Mansfield House
• City South – Euston Street
• City East – Highfields, Keyham Lane
• City West – Beaumont Leys, Hinckley Road

County:

• North West Leicestershire – Coalville
• Charnwood – Loughborough
• Melton & Rutland – Melton Mowbray
• Hinckley & Blaby – Braunstone, Hinckley
• Harborough – Market Harborough
• Oadby and Wigston – Wigston

Uniform

• Black operational shirt for Constables and a blue operational shirt for PCSOs^[13]
• Epaulettes (black for Officers and blue for PCSOs) showing name and collar number
• Black operational combat trousers
• White operational shirt for senior officers and ceremonial use^[13]
• Custodian helmet or bowler hat for constables and sergeants^[14]
• Peaked hat or bowler for PCSOs
• White peaked cap for officers attached to the Roads Policing Unit (RPU)
• Peaked caps or bowlers for senior officers
• Custodian helmet for male officers and bowler hat for females
• Reflective or black protective body armour vest
• Modular carriage system for body armour or tactical belt to carry equipment

PEEL inspection 2022

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) conducts a periodic police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) inspection of each police service's performance. In its latest PEEL inspection, Leicestershire Police was rated as follows:^[15]

	Outstanding	Good	Adequate	Requires Improvement	Inadequate
2021/22 rating	Recording data about crime Preventing crime Protecting vulnerable people	Treatment of the public Managing offenders Developing a positive workplace Good use of resources	Investigating crime Responding to the public

See also

• Leicestershire Police and Crime Commissioner
• List of law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories
• Law enforcement in the United Kingdom

References

1. "Tables for Police workforce, England and Wales". Office for National Statistics. 31 March 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
2. "Police force slammed for 'pointless' name change". Leicester Mercury. 24 October 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
3. The Thin Blue Line, Police Council for Great Britain Staff Side Claim for Undermanning Supplements, 1965
4. "Police forces 'to be cut to 24'". BBC News. 20 March 2006. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
5. Martin, Alexander J. (11 June 2015). "Cops turn Download Festival into an ORWELLIAN SPY PARADISE". The Register. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
6. "Summaya Mughal - UK's longest serving chief constable to retire from policing - BBC Sounds". www.bbc.co.uk.
7. "Leicestershire Police" (PDF). Leicestershire Police. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
8. Clifford R. Stanley. "A centenary tribute to Frederick Goodyer, Leicester's first Chief Constable 1836-1876" (PDF). Leicestershire Archeological and Historical Society. Retrieved 15 June 2018 – via University of Leicester.
9. "Part of your community for 180 years" (PDF). Leicestershire Police. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
10. "Chief Constable". Leicestershire Police. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
11. "Chief Constable Rob Nixon QPM". Leicestershire Police. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
12. "Leicestershire Constabulary and the former constituent forces". Police Roll of Honour Trust. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
13. "Police display their 'new look'". Enderby Eye. 6 June 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
14. "Bringing back the helmet for the Crown". 1 June 2022. Archived from the original on 10 June 2022.
15. "PEEL 2021/22 Police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy: An inspection of Leicestershire Police" (PDF). Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. 28 April 2022. Retrieved 1 May 2022.

External links

• Official website
• Leicestershire Police at HMICFRS
• Day in the life of Chief Constable Simon Cole from BBC Radio Leicester
• Leicestershire Constabulary Roll of Honour