Humberside Police


Humberside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing The East Riding of Yorkshire including Hull and northern parts of Lincolnshire including Grimsby and Scunthorpe.
The current Chief Constable is Lee Freeman. Following the sudden departure of Justine Curran, Lee Freeman took over as the Deputy Chief Constable in February 2017. He was appointed as Chief Constable In June 2017.
Lee Freeman was previously the Assistant Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police, from 2013 - 2015. Freeman transferred to Humberside Police in May 2015.
Humberside Police's Home Office Radio Code is XH 16.

History

Humberside Police was created in 1974 following a merger of previous forces under the Local Government Act 1972, along with the non-metropolitan county of Humberside.
Proposals made by the Home Secretary on 21 March 2006 would have seen the force merge with North Yorkshire Police, South Yorkshire Police and West Yorkshire Police to form a strategic police force for the entire region. These proposals have since been 'put on hold' by the government.

Humberside Police Authority

Following the abolition of Humberside in 1996, the local council members of the Police Authority were appointed by a joint committee of the councils of the East Riding of Yorkshire, Kingston upon Hull, North Lincolnshire, and North East Lincolnshire. On 21 November 2012 the Police Authority was made redundant by the introduction of the Police and Crime Commissioner.
The Humberside Police Authority, at the time it ceased to exist, had 17 members in total; nine Local Authority Elected members from the area's four unitary authorities and eight independent members.

Chief Constables

From March 2013 to February 2017 the Chief Constable of Humberside Police was Justine Curran, previously Chief Constable of Tayside Police in Scotland before the introduction of the national Police Scotland service on 1 April 2013. Her appointment was unanimously approved by the Humberside Police and Crime panel after Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Grove, proposed her for the post. Curran took over the position from Tim Hollis CBE QPM who retired from the service in March 2013.
On 11 November 2015, it was revealed that Curran had claimed for more than £39,000 in expenses for her relocation from Tayside to Humberside in March 2013.
After Keith Hunter was elected as Police and Crime Commissioner in May 2016, Curran was given six months to improve the force after it was rated inadequate by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary. Nine months later, after a further HMIC inspection which identified further "significant failings", Hunter asked Curran to consider her position, and she announced her retirement. She left on 20 February 2017, 18 months before she had been due to retire.
In August 2017, it was revealed that Hunter had "lost confidence" in Curran and was "completely undermined" by her when it was decided to withhold the findings of an HMIC investigation which revealed further inadequacies within the force. Hunter sought legal advice, and Curran was allowed to retire before the statutory procedure to remove a Chief Constable was started.
Lee Freeman, a former Assistant Chief Constable in Lincolnshire from August 2013 who had joined Humberside in May 2015, took over as Deputy Chief Constable on Curran's departure. He was appointed temporary Chief Constable in May 2017 and the position was made permanent on 26 June 2017.

Police fleet

Humberside uses a wide variety of vehicles, including both marked and unmarked police vehicles.  
All marked police vehicles utilize Battenberg livery, as opposed to the traditional livery previously used by Humberside Police. Further to this all marked police vehicles use LED lightbars. The older halogen light bars have been phased out.
The LED light-bars are much easier to see, due to the increased lumen output. The LED light bars contain red lights at the rear, which can be used to indicate to other road users that the vehicle is stationary. They also contain both left and right spots lights, called side alley lights, that can be used to illuminate door numbers when quickly trying to find an address.
The roads policing unit utilize a premier hazard light-bar. This offers a more customizable light bar, with the option to cycle between flash patterns. It also allows officers the choice, of illuminating only the front or rear LED’s.
Additionally, the road policing unit vehicles contain a premier hazard message board. This can display a scrolling message to drivers, such as “Follow Me”
IRT vehicles benefit from a single video camera with no audio function. This is located at the front of the vehicle, near the rear-view mirror. The camera remains recording for 20 minutes after the vehicle’s ignition has been turned off. IRT vehicles also contain a black box, that records a vehicles speed, acceleration, braking time, and light usage. This is automatically uploaded to a ‘cloud’ storage device via WIFI, once the vehicle returns to station.
Roads Policing vehicles contain a Pro-vida recording camera. This is able to record audio, as well as display the speed of the vehicle, and its location.
Additionally, Roads Policing Vehicles contain ANPR capabilities. This automatically reads the registration plate of a vehicle, and displays information with regards to insurance details, including the holders name and d.o.b. as well as the tax and mot status of a vehicle. It further provides information to any ‘markers’ placed on a vehicle or its named driver. Humberside Police traffic officers also carry a handheld Pro Lazer 4 speed gun, drugs swipe and a Breathalyzer. IRT patrol cars do not contain a ANPR device and manually have to search a vehicles detail using their radio or handheld computer.

Performance

The force underperformed for a number of years. In October 2006 it was named as the worst-performing police force in the country, based on data released from the Home Office
In 2007 the force moved off the bottom of the unofficial league table thanks to "major improvements" in performance, according to the Home Office.
Performance continued to improve, with a 20% reduction in total recorded crime as at March 2009. Recorded vehicle crime was down 39%, domestic burglary was down 12%, and robbery was down 36%. Home Office figures published in July 2009 showed that from 2007/08 to 2008/09, Humberside Police had the second highest increase of all forces in England and Wales in the percentage of British Crime Survey respondents who said that their local police do an excellent or good job.
After inspections by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary between April and August 2009, their report identified Humberside Police as one of the top eight forces in the country.
In April 2009 the force was cited as the poorest performing force for completing Criminal Record Bureau checks. The Home Office requirement is for 95% of requests to be completed within 14 days; Humberside Police completed just 15%. As such checks are often a condition of employment, this failure caused delays for those waiting to start work.
Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, said he was disgusted with this failure. He said, "The delay in processing them stops people taking up work and has a crippling impact on voluntary groups who have to get their volunteers approved. The Humberside Police are seriously lagging behind virtually every other constabulary in the country and local people are being let down."
In October 2015, it was revealed that officer morale in the force was the lowest in the country, with 84.5% of officers saying that their morale was currently low, compared to 70.2% nationally.
On 19 October 2015, in a report published by HMIC, Humberside Police was the only force in the country classed as inadequate. The report suggested that the force had a "limited understanding" of demand for its services, and raised "serious concerns" over the way it was organised. HM Inspector of Constabulary Mike Cunningham said: "Humberside Police has a limited understanding of the current and future demand for its services and, as it is unable to fully match resources to demand in some important areas, this affects its ability to provide a good service to the public." Chief Constable Justine Curran said the force had "moved on" since then.
Similarly, the Independent Police Complaints Commission released its annual statistics of police complaints from forces throughout the country: Humberside Police performed better than average in many areas; e.g. the number of complaints had decreased by 4% compared to an increase of 6% nationally. But the number of appeals by dissatisfied complainants had increased by 24%: three times the national average.
In November 2015, it was revealed that thousands of telephone calls to the 101 service were being abandoned; the problem had reached its peak in June 2015 when over 11,000 calls were abandoned.
On 19 November 2015 the East Riding of Yorkshire Council agreed to reconvene a panel to review the force after October's HMIC inspection. The panel ended up criticising both police and crime commissioner Matthew Grove and chief constable Justine Curran for refusing to attend one of its meetings. This had led the council to write a critical letter to the parliamentary committee for standards in public life, highlighting concerns over a lack of proper consultation over the reorganisation. Speaking at the full council meeting, Cllr. Owen said the panel's concerns had been vindicated by the HMIC report. He said "all public sector bodies are facing huge financial pressures and I fully appreciate the pressures we all face, and Humberside Police are no different, recovering from a number of years of having to improve performance in a climate of low funding and other pressures.
In June 2018, 12 months after Curran's departure, Humberside Police were formally disengaged by HMICFRS and assessed as sufficiently improved and stable to be removed from what were in effect "special meaures"
In August 2018, in the annual Police Federation Pay and Morale Survey, Humberside were officially recorded as the most improved police force in the country in terms of police officers' reported levels of personal morale. The survey placed the force 3rd out of 43 forces across England and Wales; the previous year the results were reported locally as Humberside having the lowest morale in the country.

Custody suites

Humberside Police has two Custody Suites, that operate 24/7 and hold prisoners which have been arrested by officers in the force. The two Custody Suites are located at;
- Clough Road, Hull
- Birchin Way, Grimsby
The amount of cells that each Custody Suite has is shown in the table below.
Police StationNumber of Cells
Hull Clough Road40
Grimsby36
Scunthorpe**Closed in 2019**

The 40 cell Custody suite at Clough Road Police Station was built as a state of the art replacement for the Queens Gardens Police Station.
In 2019, both the Scunthorpe Custody Suite and the Grimsby, Victoria Road Custody Suite shut. Prisoners are now held in a £14 million, 36 cell Custody Suite, located at Birchin Way, Grimsby. The new cells are state of the art, with many facilities including a secure holding bay for arriving prisoners, CCTV monitoring throughout, and special 'orange' holding cell for vulnerable prisoners.

Controversy

The 1998 death of Christopher Alder, a black man who was unlawfully killed while in the custody of Humberside Police, led to an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission and a subsequent apology by the government in the European Court of Human Rights, admitting that it had failed to meet its obligations regarding preservation of life and ensuring no person is subjected to "inhuman or degrading treatment". Five Humberside Police officers were charged with manslaughter and misconduct in public office but the trial collapsed and the judge ordered the jury to find the officers not guilty on all charges.
Humberside Police shot to the national headlines in mid-2004 when it refused to dismiss Chief Constable David Westwood despite instructions from the then Home Secretary, David Blunkett. The Home Secretary eventually obtained a court order suspending Westwood. The force had come under pressure to dismiss Westwood when the Soham Inquiry apportioned part of the blame to Humberside Police for not properly informing the authorities of Grimsby-born Ian Huntley, who was known to Humberside Police and local social services, after reports of nine sexual offences of which Huntley had been suspected, and also an alleged burglary. In only one of the sex offence investigations was Huntley charged and remanded in custody, but the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence, and his burglary case was left on file. Huntley was not convicted of any crime, and Humberside Police did not adequately inform the authorities in Cambridgeshire about Huntley when he moved to Soham to work as a school caretaker. He was found guilty of murdering two 10-year-old girls in 2003.
This led to the Bichard enquiry for the police force and the Kelly report for the local council.
It returned to the headlines in 2005 when Colin Inglis, its chairman at the time of the crisis, appeared in court charged with indecent assaults against children dating back to the 1980s. Inglis was cleared of all charges in July 2006.
In January 2015, former Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Andrews was convicted of common assault, harassment, stalking, and witness intimidation. Court testimony revealed that other senior officers in Humberside Police questioned whether an investigation into Andrews' conduct should have gone ahead, concerned by "the 'dirt' he might throw" and the damage caused to the force's reputation. One victim, a police inspector, expressed fear of a Goole-based "mafia" of senior officers that included Andrews.
In November 2015, a sergeant with 27 years service was dismissed after kicking a 16-year-old boy in the head following a chase. Sergeant John Stevenson was involved in one of the most high-profile cases in Humberside Police's recent history when he arrested his own boss, Colin Andrews, who was found guilty of stalking, harassment and assault in January. Many speculated that the sergeant was used as a scapegoat.
A man who has no connection with Humberside, was questioned over the telephone by Humberside Police for 34 minutes because he liked a Twitter posting that questioned transgender ideology. Characterising this as an act characteristic of an Orwellian society, the High Court ruled in 2020 that this questionning was unlawful and represented a disproportionate interference with the man's right to freedom of expression

Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC)

On Thursday 15 November 2012 the people of Humberside went to the polling stations to vote for a candidate for the Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner for the Humberside Police, as did the rest of the people of England and Wales, except the Metropolitan Police area, to vote for a PCC in their respective police services. Following the poll Matthew Grove was elected as the new Police and Crime Commissioner for the Humberside Police area. When the commissioner took up office the existing Police Authority was abolished.
On 6 May 2016, Labour's Keith Hunter was elected as Humberside Police's next PCC, receiving over 76,128 votes in total during the second round, compared to Grove's 51,757.

Documentaries

''Traffic Cops''

Humberside Police have taken part in the BBC One documentary series of Traffic Cops, the programme shows the day-to-day aspects of a Police Officer within the Traffic Department of the Service and the incidents and emergencies that they deal with which often, but not always, relate to roads policing issues.
The Humberside Police Traffic Department has also taken part in the separate spin-off series billed as Traffic Cops Specials, entitled Motorway Cops on occasions, which often shows the Central Motorway Police Group, however often includes Humberside and numerous other forces Motorway Cops as they each deal with Incidents and Emergencies that occur on the motorways.

''The Lock Up''

Humberside Police recently participated in a documentary serious named The Lock Up, where cameras followed Police and Custody officers in their work at the Custody Suite at Humberside Police Headquarters on Priory Road, Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire.
The documentary has had 2 series, the first aired on BBC Three which started showing on 4 February 2011 consisting of 8 episodes where cameras rolled 24/7; the second series was aired primarily on the main BBC Channel, BBC One.

''Neighbourhood Blues''

Humberside Police have also participated in the second series of Neighbourhood Blues, that covered the work of the forces Neighbourhood Policing Teams. This was aired on weekday mornings for two weeks starting on 12 December 2012, on BBC One.

Officers killed in the line of duty

The Police Memorial Trust lists and commemorates all British police officers killed in the line of duty, and since its establishment in 1984 has erected over 38 memorials to some of those officers.
Since the formation of Humberside Police six officers have been killed in the line of duty, these officers are:
Notable major incidents and investigations in which Humberside Police have been involved in include: