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Bedfordshire Police is one of the smallest police forces in the country, where 1232 Police Constables serve a population of nearly 590,000. The Bedfordshire force police the county of the same name, which is subdivided into three unitary authorities - Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Luton, by far the largest town in the county. The force headquarters are based in the town of Kempston, which is situated to the south west of the county town of Bedford.
Bedfordshire Police History
The first professional police force was established in Bedfordshire in 1839, formed under the County Police Act of the same year. This replaced the previous system of elected parish constables. The force originally comprised of one chief constable, six superintendents and just 40 constables, who were at the time paid around 19 shillings a week, nearly twice the wage of a typical labourer. The headquarters were based in Ampthill.
In 1966, the then independent Luton Borough Police was amalgamated with the Bedfordshire Constabulary to become the Bedfordshire and Luton Constabulary. The force held this name until 1974, when it was renamed to Bedfordshire Police.
A merger with the neighbouring forces of Hertfordshire Constabulary and Essex Police was proposed in 2006 by the Home Secretary, to form a strategic force. This, however, was shelved later that same year, largely due to a great deal of local opposition.
Perhaps one of the biggest cases in which the Bedfordshire Police Force has been involved in recent history is that of the stabbing of one of its officers. PC Jon Henry was attacked by a Nigerian immigrant, Ikechukwu Tennyson Obih, in June 2007. This fatal attack occurred in Luton town centre on the 11th June. Mr Obih stabbed PC Henry twice in the chest, when the officer responded to a 999 call after Mr Obih had stabbed two window cleaners earlier that day.
Despite the fact that PC Henry was wearing body armour at the time of the attack, he later died in Luton and Dunstable Hospital. The two window cleaners survived the attack. As would be expected from such a viscous attack, the incident received a vast amount of media coverage at the time. Mr Obih is currently on remand, charged with the murder of PC Henry and the attempted murder of the two other victims.
Bedfordshire Police Today
Bedfordshire Police have their own motto, ‘Serving the communities and making them safe from crime’, which the force endeavours to achieve and uphold as much as possible. This, however, has proved to be quite a struggle over the past few years.
This issue was highlighted with the results of the 2006/2007 league table, which was based on Home Office ratings. These results highlighted Bedfordshire as the worst performing police force in England and Wales, in direct contrast to Surrey Police force, which was rated as the best.
The results were achieved by comparing how the force deals with such issues as tackling crime, public protection, protecting vulnerable people and the use of resources. It was concluded that the Bedfordshire Police force was given a fair rating for its methods of tackling crime and serious crime. It was also judged as performing fairly when dealing with public protection and within its uses of the forces resources. Unfortunately, however, the force was deemed as being poor when it came to protecting vulnerable people and in the implementation of neighbourhood policing.
As a response to these results the Chief Constable, Gillian Cooper, along with the current Chairman, Peter Conniff, have vowed to improve the aspects in which the force fail so miserably. Bedfordshire Police aim to achieve this by the implementation of the force’s Policing Pledge.
The Bedfordshire Police Pledge has four aims. These aims are to make people feel safer; to increase the public’s feelings of safety; to improve levels of satisfaction with the force’s service and to improve the public’s confidence in Bedfordshire Police. The Policing Pledge aims to give members of the public the knowledge of the level of service they should expect from the force, as well as giving the force a benchmark to strive to achieve.
Bedfordshire Police Force Structure
Bedfordshire as a whole is described as being a county of contrasts. The Bedfordshire Police force is therefore split into two divisions: the County Division and the Luton Division. The County Division is led under the overall command of Chief Superintendent Andy Street.
The far north of the county tends to be more rural, with rolling countryside dotted with villages and small market towns, such as Sharnbrook and Keysoe. This area is included within the County Division and known as the North Bedford Rural neighbourhood area and is led by its own inspector.
The central, more populous region of Bedfordshire, which also lies within the County Division, centres around Ampthill and the county town of Bedford. This region is divided into three Inspector led Neighbourhood Areas. These are Bedford Central; Bedford South; and Ampthill and Biggleswade.
To the south-east of the County Division lies the larger towns of Leighton Buzzard and Dunstable, which are also split into their own individual Neighbourhood areas.
By far the largest and most populous urban area within Bedfordshire lies to the south east of the county and centres around the town of Luton. In order for Bedfordshire Police to adequately serve this large cosmopolitan town’s population, it is served by its own division of the force, the Luton Division. This division is in place to police the large and expanding international airport which lies within its boundaries, as well as the large student population who are attracted by the town’s fast growing University. Luton also boasts one of the country’s largest shopping centres, which can bring its own problems with associated crime.
Within the Luton Division lies a number of specialist units, in place to serve the individual needs of the large urban population. These include a Domestic Violence Unit and a number of specialist response teams, for such crimes as burglary and robbery. The individual Airport Unit is in place purely to provide a reassuring police presence, in place to reassure and protect passengers and airport staff, along with their belongings.
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