West Yorkshire Police
West Yorkshire Police serve approximately 2.2 million people in the five metropolitan districts of Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield.[1]
People
Chief Constable
- Colin Sampson 1983-1989
- Peter Nobes 1989-1993
- Keith Hellawell 1993-1998
- Graham Moore 1998-2002
- Colin Cramphorn 2002-2006
- Sir Norman Bettison 2007-2012
- John Parkinson (acting)
- Mark Gilmore 2013-
Controversies
West Yorkshire Police has played a very vocal role in the UK's Prevent programme. The Times Educational Supplement (TES) has reported on how the police there hosted in September 2015 more than 100 teachers from local schools, who were told that anti-fracking protesters should be now viewed as potential extremists under the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy. The move received widespread criticism. [2]
When Netpol attempted via Freedom of Information requests to push five police forces to release their Prevent training presentations for public sector staff among other details, the Information Commissioner (ICO) rejected their appeal. They cited grounds of national security and stating somewhat alarmingly 'that simply asking for information from multiple forces is itself suspicious, because this could be used as part of "a radicalisation strategy... by extremists to evade detection".' [3]
Notes
- ↑ County Profile, West Yorkshire Police, accessed 12 July 2013.
- ↑ Russell Scott, More police forces and councils labelling peaceful anti-fracking protestors as 'extremists' alongside ISIS and far right, SpinWatch, 02 December 2016. Accessed 6 December 2016.
- ↑ Russell Scott and Melissa Jones, Update: more documents show police, councils and schools labelling anti-fracking protestors as extremists, Spinwatch, 09 December 2016, accessed 12 December 2016.
