Surrey Police


Surrey Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Surrey in South East England.
The force is currently led by Chief Constable Gavin Stephens. Previously the force was led by Nick Ephgrave who left the force to re-join the Metropolitan Police. This was announced by the county PCC on 13 December 2018.
Previous to this, the chief constable was Lynne Owens, Surrey's first female chief constable. Owens left in December 2015.
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 H. C. 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 as of March 2014 is 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 has total expenditure of £224.1m, of which £183.2m goes on employee costs, £27.3m on supplies and services, £8.8m on premises, and £4.8m on transport. It also has £11.1m of income, resulting in "gross expenditure" of £213m.
The last permanent Chief Constable of Surrey Police was Nick Ephgrave, appointed in July 2016. He had been temporary Chief Constable since December 2015 and was previously Deputy Chief Constable, having been in that role since July 2013. Before this he was a Commander in the Metropolitan Police. The previous Chief Constable of Surrey Police was Lynne Owens, who left to become the head of the National Crime Agency.
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.
2008/092009/102010/112011/122012/132013/142014/152015/16
Police Officers1,8721,8901,8851,9741,9701,9381,8631,938
PCSOs206224229228210153123119
Police Staff1,7321,8291,8051,7151,6901,5921,4971,417
Designated Officers338263287306295247197176
Total FTE personnel4,1484,2064,2064,2234,1653,9303,6803,650
Special Constables314327337345273182122109

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.

Chief Constables

Chief constables have been:
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.
Pay ranges from £25,396 for a new constable, to £140,217 for the chief constable.

Air Operations Unit

Surrey, like most British Police Forces, has Air Operations covered by the National Police Air Service. The helicopter callsign 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 include artefacts and touch-screen technology, all 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.

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

Future of Surrey Police

In a report published by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in July 2011, the impact on the number of police officers and staff partly due to the reduction to Surrey Police's budget following the comprehensive spending review is as follows:
Police officersPolice staffPCSOsTotal
31 March 2010 1,8902,0922244,206
31 March 2015 1,9592,1842224,365

Stations, and former stations, with borough divisions

Epsom & Ewell Borough
Mole Valley District
Tandridge District
Reigate and Banstead Borough
Spelthorne Borough
Guildford Borough
Woking Borough
Elmbridge Borough
Waverley Borough
Surrey Heath Borough
Runnymede
HQ
DivisionPolice ConstablesDet ConstablesSergeantsInspectorsCh InspectorsSuptCh SuptACPOTotal
Western3194060143210439
Eastern2804057143210397
Northern2443755123200353
Specialist Crime787441145510218
Operations15812631200191
Support Services16221010100176
CJ & Custody70525110066
DCC Portfolio5285211024
Contact00411210018
Support Units1243000414
Total1,254198317822017441,896

DivisionPolice ConstablesDet ConstablesSergeantsInspectorsCh InspectorsSuptCh SuptACPOTotal
Specialist Crime182139100247410457
Western3463159112210452
Eastern2543242112210344
Northern2282834122210307
Operations19303051100230
HR81261000090
Support Units7545130429
Central Units50711210026
DCC Portfolio100120004
Total1,297237282811915441,939

CommandPolice ConstablesDet ConstablesSergeantsInspectorsCh InspectorsSupt/ Ch Supt/ ACPOTotal
Response4761632645575
Investigation2511411082163530
Neighbourhoods2370531523310
Tasking & Coordinating1172831942191
HR-Probationers14100000141
Joint Collaboration53241243298
Human Resources462610055
Professional Standards33431014
ACPO/Corporate Communications2020037
Force Improvement Team0004127
Enterprise2101004
Police Federation1011003
Corporate Development0000101
Diversity1000001
Total1,3302002808522201,654

DivisionConstablesSergeantsInspectorsCh InspectorsSuperintendentsCh SuperintendentsTotal
General policing1,006187519821,263
Specialist operations34365301342457
Support36151472377
Citizen Focus1971232043
Total1,404274107321671897

Motor vehicles

Surrey Police use many types of car for the diverse categories of response vehicles required by the modern police officer. Some of them are listed below with principal uses.
As well as preventing and detecting crime, Surrey Police say that "dealing with road accidents forms a large part of our job, or at least taking measures to try and prevent them". The following table shows the number of casualties, grouped by severity, on Surrey's roads over recent years.
2008200920102011201220132014
Fatal45413228181838
Serious483530488554556581697
Total528571520582574599735
Slight5,4115,1844,8115,1734,9914,6244,673
Grand total5,9395,7555,3315,7555,5655,2235,408

Criticism by the IPCC

Lack of investigation of phone hacking

In criticism widely reported in the media, Deborah Glass, Deputy Chair of the IPCC, said in a six-page report regarding the hacking in 2002 of the phone of the murdered Milly Dowler:
"It is apparent from the evidence that there was knowledge of this at all levels within the investigation team.
"There is equally no doubt that Surrey Police did nothing to investigate it; nobody was arrested or charged in relation to the alleged interception of those messages either in 2002 or subsequently, until the Operation Weeting arrests in 2011.
"Phone hacking was a crime in 2002 and it should have been investigated. We have not been able to uncover any evidence, in documentation or witness statements, of why and by whom that decision was made: former senior officers in particular appear to have been afflicted by a form of collective amnesia about this." She also said: "In view of the widespread knowledge uncovered in this investigation, we consider that it is scarcely credible that no one connected to the Milly Dowler investigation recognised the relevance and importance of the knowledge that Surrey Police had in 2002, before this information was disclosed by Operation Weeting."

Return of firearms used in double murder

In Farnham in February 2014, John Lowe murdered Christine and Lucy Lee, using one of his firearms that had been returned to him by Surrey Police. In October 2014, Lowe was convicted of their murders and received a life sentence with a minimum term of 25 years.
Two independent reports by Hampshire Constabulary and North Yorkshire Police criticised the decision to return his firearms, which prompted the IPCC to launch an independent investigation. This investigation concluded in February 2016 and it published its findings in a 73-page report in April 2017. IPCC associate commissioner Tom Milsom said: "Our investigation paints a deeply concerning portrait of how Surrey Police's firearms licensing team operated at that time. We found a unit which lacked the necessary training and processes to manage such a serious responsibility, staffed by individuals who were failing to undertake their duties with rigour and due consideration."
Two staff members left Surrey Police as a result of this investigation, one being dismissed for gross misconduct and the other retiring before a hearing for gross misconduct could take place.
The IPCC also conducted a separate independent investigation into complaints made by Stacey Banner, the daughter of Christine Lee and sister of Lucy Lee, who was arrested in a separate incident weeks after the murders. The IPCC found that a detective constable and a detective sergeant had cases to answer for misconduct and a detective inspector for gross misconduct.

Other Surrey emergency services