Police area
A police area is the area for which a territorial police force in the United Kingdom is responsible for policing.
Every location in the United Kingdom has a designated territorial police force with statutory responsibility for providing policing services and enforcing criminal law, which is set out in the various police areas below. Special police forces and other non territorial constabularies do not have police areas and their respective specialist areas of responsibility are shared with the relevant geographic territorial police force. Ultimately the Chief Officer of a territorial police force has primacy over all law enforcement within his police area even if is within the remit of a special police force such as the British Transport Police on the railway infrastructure or the Ministry of Defence Police on MOD property.
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[edit] History
The Metropolitan Police District was the first example of a police area - when it was created, all other police forces were responsible for one county or county borough only. Police areas were introduced with the passage of the Police Act 1964 and Police (Scotland) Act 1967, when a number of small (mainly county borough) police forces were merged with county ones.
The current system of police areas in England and Wales is set out by Section 1 of the Police Act 1996.
There are 43 police areas in England and Wales, most of which are defined by Schedule 1 of the 1996 act. They may be altered by order of the Home Secretary.[1] The two other areas, the Metropolitan Police District and the City of London police area, are defined by Section 76 of the London Government Act 1963 and the City of London Police Act 1839 respectively.
In Scotland, current police areas are set out in the Police (Scotland) Act 1967, as amended by Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994.[2]
In Northern Ireland, there is only one police force: the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
[edit] Current police areas of Great Britain
| Police force | Area |
|---|---|
| Dyfed-Powys Police | The counties of Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Powys |
| Gwent Police | The county of Monmouthshire and the county boroughs of Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Newport and Torfaen |
| North Wales Police | The counties of the Isle of Anglesey, Gwynedd, Denbighshire and Flintshire and the county boroughs of Conwy and Wrexham |
| South Wales Police | The counties of Cardiff and Swansea and the county boroughs of Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot, Rhondda Cynon Taf and the Vale of Glamorgan |
| Police force | Area |
|---|---|
| Central Scotland Police | The council areas of Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling |
| Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary | The council area of Dumfries and Galloway |
| Fife Constabulary | The council area of Fife |
| Grampian Police | The council areas of Aberdeenshire, the City of Aberdeen and Moray |
| Lothian and Borders Police | The council areas of the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Scottish Borders, Midlothian and West Lothian |
| Northern Constabulary | The council areas of Highland, Orkney, Shetland and Na h-Eileanan Siar |
| Strathclyde Police | The council areas of Argyll and Bute, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, City of Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire |
| Tayside Police | The council areas of Angus, City of Dundee and Perth and Kinross |
