Founded 1919. Statutory staff association for Police Constables, Sergeants, Inspectors and Chief Inspectors in the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales.
Evidence was given by Chief Constable Stephen House and Director of Communications Rob Shorthouse on behalf of the former territorial police force responsible for the Scottish council areas of Argyll and Bute, City of Glasgow, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire between 1975 and 2013, when an Act of the Scottish Parliament (the Police and Fire Reform [Scotland] Act 2012) created a single police service, known as Police Scotland.
One of the four territorial police forces in Wales, with headquarters in Bridgend, and at the time of the Inquiry covering Cardiff, Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil, Swansea and the western South Wales Valleys. The largest police force in Wales in terms of population, and the seventh largest in the UK at the time. Chief Constable Peter Vaughan gave evidence on police relations with the media, which included keeping registers of all hospitality, accepted or refused. A media register of contacts between news media and police had been in place since 2011, Vaughan told the Inquiry.
Territorial police force responsible for policing Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands. At the time of giving evidence, Chief Constable Mike Cunningham was lead of ACPO Professional Standards Portfolio and went on to become Chief Executive of the College of Policing.
Anne Campbell gave evidence as Head of Corporate Communications for Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies. Suffolk Constabulary was responsible for policing an area with a population of 678,074 and 288,473 households. Campbell described management of media enquiries within the department and contacts between the police and media.
Territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Surrey in South-East England. In 2011, the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee sought evidence from Surrey Police to determine whether it had been misled on the subject of phone-hacking. The force was asked to provide details of all conversations between Surrey Police and the News of the World journalist Neville Thurlbeck relating to stories published about Milly Dowler on 14 April 2002. See also the evidence of former Assistant Chief Constable Jerry Kirkby; Chief Constable Lynne Owens, senior law enforcement officer; Ian Marratt, public relations and communications professional for Surrey Police; and Sir Denis O'Connor, former Chief Constable of Surrey Police.
The second largest territorial police force in England, covering the Metropolitan County of West Midlands, including the cities of Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton, totalling nearly 2.9 million inhabitants. Chris Sims, Chief Constable at the time of Inquiry, and Chief Inspector Sally Seeley, who ran the West Midlands Police press office, gave evidence. Sims described a "very traditional relationship" with the media, with regular contact with the Evening Mail, Birmingham Post, Express and Star, and Coventry Evening Telegraph newspapers, plus periodic contact with others. He told the Inquiry that he never accepted hospitality from the media because "it's a professional relationship". Chief Inspector Sally Seeley said officers were expected to notify the press bureau if they had contact with reporters.
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), commonly known as the Metropolitan Police and informally as the Met, is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement in Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London, which is the responsibility of the City of London Police. Since January 2012, the Mayor of London is responsible for the governance of the Metropolitan Police through the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC). This functional body of the Greater London Authority came into being in 2012 and replaced the Metropolitan Police Authority.
