Four police forces have unveiled large-scale collaboration plans to increase the capacity and capability of policing across Yorkshire and the Humber.
North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Humberside Police have all provided one another with mutual aid, but the newly-released Regional Collaboration and Future Policing document formally sets out how the principles of collaboration are to be implemented and expanded, to improve services provided by all four forces, including protective services, training, and procurement.
The collaboration is expected to help improve services in the face of tightening financial constraints and rising public expectations. By working together, the four forces have shown thinking that goes outside of their own force, enabling more effective combining of resources, better value-for-money solutions and using modern technology to its full advantage.
The aim of joint working is to enhance, not compromise, the policing delivered locally by individual forces.  It is also expected to improve public confidence, reassuring people that officers and staff are committed to delivering the best possible service across the whole region.
The Regional Collaboration and Future Policing document, unveiled last week, outlines areas of activity which have been prioritised and how the investigative work will be split between the four forces. Senior police officers will each handle their own individual project and the progress and benefits of each project will be measured and evaluated for its effectiveness.
Areas identified to benefit from collaborative working are:
•Serious and organised crime
•Regional Intelligence Unit
•Strategic roads policing unit
•Regional mobilisation plan
•Custody processes and policies
•Employment framework
•Mobile information
Chief constable of South Yorkshire Police, Meredydd Hughes, said the collaborative measure made the region more resilient to the ever-changing policing environment. “Joint working aims to deliver a modernised, efficient and effective police service across all four forces. Working collaboratively across the region will help to increase the capacity and capability of all four forces to meet current and future demands. As well as looking at ways to enhance our service to the public whenever required, joint working is also investigating ways to enhance the productivity of activities that support operational delivery, without a loss in the level of service provided to the public.”
Chief constable of Humberside Police, Tim Hollis, said that joint working was an appropriate response to managing tight budgets without compromising service. “The four forces have been working constructively together since 2005, looking at a range of areas where joint working can improve how we tackle crime, protect our communities and deliver cost efficiencies at a time when budgets are coming under pressure. Wherever possible, efficiency savings will be re-invested in frontline services. The principles of collaborative working are not about fundamentally changing what we do or losing local identity, but looking at ways we can operate more smartly.”
Yorkshire and the Humber has a history of successful collaboration. It was one of the first regions in the UK to have a recognised regional operational team with the creation of the Regional Roads Policing Team, a Regional Intelligence Unit (RIU), a strategic unit that maps criminal activity across the region, and the Regional Asset Recovery Team (RART), which uses the power of POCA to strip convicted criminals of their assets.
Grahame Maxwell, chief constable of North Yorkshire Police, explained: “Combining the strengths and skills of the four Yorkshire forces enhances our mutual capability and capacity to deal with serious and organised crime and major incidents. The success of the Regional Roads Policing Team during the past year sets a clear template for this collaborative effort.
“Together we can take on these significant challenges from a position of strength and resilience, and continue to protect and serve our communities to the best of our ability right across the Yorkshire and the Humber region.”
Joint working is undertaken with consideration of what the visible benefits would be and on the understanding that the outcome of the collaboration would result in improvements for the region as a whole. The aim of Regional Collaboration and Future Policing is to provide a region-wide policy to make roads in the region safer, to tackle serious and organised crime, and be fully prepared to manage major incidents across the region.
Sir Norman Bettison, chief constable of West Yorkshire Police, said that the collaboration was the result of a “shared vision of embedding and improving neighbourhood policing while being able to better protect the public and tackle serious and organised crime”.
The four respective police authorities, collectively known as the Joint Police Authorities Committee (JPAC), have had an important role in making the collaboration a reality.
Newly-appointed chair of JPAC and chair of South Yorkshire Police Authority, Charles Perryman, said: “The four police authorities in the region have committed funds to this project because they believe that it is a cost-effective way of bringing benefits to the citizens of the region. The ongoing achievement of these seizures shows that our faith was well placed and gives us encouragement to look for further ?ways to enhance our regional working.”
Areas of activity currently being developed through the collaboration include:
•Improving service delivery, particularly in the areas of specialist and protective services.
•Identifying and sharing best practice.
•Economies made by sharing overheads.
•Improving and modernising systems and practices.
•Improving interoperability and harmonising existing systems and processes.
•Streamlined communication.
•A stronger coherent voice that increases the influence of the region on a national stage.