24 Hours in Police Custody: Bedfordshire Police information

22 September 2014

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Bedfordshire is the third smallest force in England and Wales, and combines a tight-knit, ‘family’ feel with a very challenging combination of policing activities.

It is extremely diverse as the force must balance the needs of two major urban centres of Bedford and Luton, which is only 30 miles from London, with a large rural, northern area, plus other small market towns. There is also a busy international airport at Luton and the M1 motorway.

It is one of Britain’s most ethnically-diverse counties with large numbers of residents being first, second or third generation Italian, Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, Irish, Polish and West Indian heritage. Across the county over 100 languages are spoken.

The force has 1,079 police officers (1,065 full time equivalents) and 1,002 (942 FTE) police staff. The staff are mostly on the frontline with jobs such as PCSOs, detention officers, investigation officers and scenes of crime experts. Others are not so visible but just as vital, taking the 750,000 calls that come in from the public every year, working in the training and recruitment areas, keeping the force’s fleet on the road and the busy stations running.     

The force was the first in the country to start joint collaborative units with its neighbours, and now has about a third of its officers in tri-force units based across Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. Officers and staff from Bedfordshire work alongside their Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire colleagues in armed policing, counter-terrorism, major crime investigation, forensics, roads policing and professional standards. 

It is the lead force in the eastern region for Serious and Organised Crime - and also for Counter Terrorism and Domestic Extremism. 

One of the issues Bedfordshire Police has had to deal with for many years is being funded as a rural force, while facing some very complex inner-city type crime profiles.