Collaboration between Bedfordshire Police and Hertfordshire Constabulary
Working with other police forces can bring enormous benefits, such as increased resilience and economies of scale.
Bedfordshire Police is continuing to develop opportunities to collaborate effectively with Hertfordshire Constabulary and other forces and partners, and has already seen many successes.
In the context of the significant financial challenges that the force is currently facing, collaborative working is seen as a key option to achieving savings.
Bedfordshire’s Chief Constable, Gillian Parker, commented: “The overarching priority is to ensure that we deliver a policing service to communities in Bedfordshire that is as resilient, efficient and effective as possible, at a time when we are faced with considerable financial constraints like all other public services”.
A joint Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit was set up in November 2007 – the first combined unit in the UK. This unit now deals with all major crime across the two counties, providing the necessary resilience and increasing the breadth of knowledge and skills within the unit. This was followed by the creation of a number of other joint initiatives and units including in April 2009, Professional Standards, a Scientific Services Unit, and a Dog Unit. This was then followed by a Firearms Support Unit in July 2009 and a Civil Contingencies & Public Order Planning Unit in September 2009.
A dedicated joint programme team continues to build on these recent successes by exploring opportunities for further collaborative work, predominantly between Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Protective Services and some of the corporate support functions.
The team comprises officers and staff from both forces.
Peter Conniff, Chair of Bedfordshire Police Authority, added: “Not all services are suitable for collaboration, for example neighbourhood policing must retain its very local focus. However, we will explore all other options to develop joint services with Hertfordshire Constabulary and other forces and partners, both locally and across the country. The financial challenge is imminent so it will be important that work on further collaboration is developed with all urgency.”
