Gwynedd Constabulary was formed in 1950 by the amalgamation of the Caernarfonshire, Anglesey and Merionethshire Constabularies. In 1965, the force had an establishment of 308 and an actual strength of 296. Flintshire Constabulary and Denbighshire Constabulary were merged into the force in 1967, but it retained its existing name. On 1 April 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 created an administrative county of Gwynedd covering part of the police area. To avoid confusion, the force was renamed North Wales Police. Under proposals made by the Home Secretary on 6 February 2006, the force would merge with Dyfed-Powys Police, Gwent Police and South Wales Police to form a single strategic force for all of Wales. The proposals were later shelved. On 4 May 2011, North Wales Police completed a major restructuring, moving from 3 territorial divisions to a single North Wales-wide Policing function.
In the 2000s, North Wales Police has attracted a great deal of media attention, largely attributed to its former Chief Constable, Richard Brunstrom. Brunstrom was a controvertial figure, mainly because of his vocal views on speeding motorists and the legalisation of drugs. The Sun newspaper dubbed him the "Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taleban." However, he also earned respect for modernising the force's infrastructure, and learning the Welsh language, actively promoting the normalisation of its use within the force at all levels and conversing publicly through it on numerous occasions. In April 2007, Brunstrom came under fire for an incident in which he showed a photograph of the severed head of a biker in a press meeting without the family's permission, to make a point about road safety. The photo enabled the media to identify the deceased, since he was wearing a distinctive T-shirt with an anti-police message on it, which gained a lot of attention during the inquest.Brunstrom maintained that it was a "closed" meeting, and that no details of the picture should have been leaked. Motorcycle News magazine handed in a 1,600 signature petition to the Independent Police Complaints Commission requesting Brunstrom be removed. The IPCC confirmed that it would carry out an independent review into the incident. North Wales Police has also attracted attention due to its investigation into allegations of anti-Welsh comments by TV personality Anne Robinson and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. The force was believed to have carried out these investigations following complaints from members of the public. The 10-month investigation into the Prime Minister was dropped on 11 July 2006 due to a lack of evidence. It had cost £1,656, whereas the Anne Robinson investigation cost £3,800. North Wales Police is one of only three forces in England and Wales to equip their Police Community Support Officers with handcuffs, which remains controversial. As of 31 March 2011 North Wales Police have 159 PCSOs. Between April 2017 and April 2019, it was twice investigated about the circumstances behind the murder of Nicolas Churton by the Independent Office for Police Conduct. Additionally, a separate inquiry about the allegations made by Ian Lucas, Member of Parliament for Wrexham that he had been misled about the case by Mark Polin, the Chief Constable.
