Surrey Police

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.

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 (see table below for more information). 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.[5]

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 (formerly they Safer Neighbourhood Team) and a Neighbourhood Policing Team (Formerly the Area Patrol Team/Targeted Patrol Team/Response). These borough teams are supported by investigative teams which span the whole division, this being the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Safeguarding Investigation Unit (SIU).

The specialist crime division is often referred to as OPS, and includes specialist units. This being the Roads Policing Unit (RPU), Tactical Firearms Unit (TFU), Specialist Dog Handlers, Crime Scene Investigation Officers (formerly SOCOs).

There are further force wide teams, some of which are now joint teams with Sussex Police, including the Paedophile and OnLine Investigation Team (POLIT), Major Crime Investigation Team (MCIT, Sussex/Surrey Joint team), Sexual Offences Investigation Team (SOIT) and then a range of support services typical of many forces.

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.

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.

• Chief Constable
• Deputy Chief Constable
• Assistant Chief Constable
• Chief Superintendent
• Superintendent
• Chief Inspector
• Inspector
• Sergeant
• Constable

Pay ranges from £25,396 (including a £2,500 South East Regional Allowance) for a new constable,[19] to £140,217 for the chief constable.[20][21]

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.

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.

Surrey Police now operates the PLC (police, law & community) 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.

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 (after Northamptonshire) 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%.[22] 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.[23]

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.[24]

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.[25]

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.[26]

Surrey has the joint seventh lowest crime rate (with one other force) 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.[27][28]

Despite having the joint seventh lowest crime rate, the detection rate for offences was the joint second lowest (with one other force) of the 43 forces in England and Wales, with a rate of 20 percent. The average for England and Wales was 27 percent.

In a report published by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in July 2011,[31] 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:

• Guildford Four and Maguire Seven
• Deaths at Deepcut army barracks
• Murder of Milly Dowler
• Operation Arundel and Operation Ravine

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.

• Ford Focus - Neighbourhood Policing Team (Response) - Being phased out in favour for Vauxhall Astras.
• Vauxhall Astra - Neighbourhood Policing Team - in estate format.
• Hyundai i30 - Neighbourhood Policing Team/CID/SIU/NST - Typically deployed as an unmarked vehicle.
• Ford Mondeo - Neighbourhood Policing Team (Response) - In the process of being phased out.
• Ford Fiesta - Neighbourhood Specialist Team Patrol (Neighbourhoods and PCSOs)
• Jaguar XF - Roads Police Response - No longer in service.
• BMW i3 - A small number of i3's are on trial with Surrey Police. These are deployed within investigation teams, and not used in a response capacity.
• BMW 530d - Roads Police Response
• Volvo S60 - ANPR Intercept Response - No longer in service.
• BMW 1 Series - ANPR Intercept Response - No longer in service.
• Ford Kuga - Rural Policing Response - No longer in service.
• Ford Ranger - Intended to support borough policing activities. Each borough is intended to be allocated a 4x4 capable vehicle. At present in the form of Ford Rangers.
• Ford Transit - Prisoner Transport Vehicles and Safety Camera Partnership.
• Ford S-Max - Collision Investigation, and some specialist investigation teams.
• Ford Transit Connect - Forensic Investigation
• Audi Q7 - Armed Response/Roads Policing Unit
• BMW X5 - Armed Response/Roads Policing Unit
• Volvo V70 - Armed Response/Roads Policing Unit - No longer in service.
• VW Passat - Armed Response Car/Roads Policing Unit
• Honda Pan-European Motorcycle - Road Escort Support
• BMW - R1200RTP Motorcycle - Roads Police Response

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".[37] The following table shows the number of casualties, grouped by severity, on Surrey's roads over recent years.[38][39]

• List of police forces in the United Kingdom
• Policing in the United Kingdom

• Surrey Police
• Office of the PCC (includes contact details)
• Webcasts of management meetings between PCC and Chief Constable
• Chief Constables of Surrey Police