West Yorkshire Police

West Yorkshire Police is the local police who are responsible for the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England.  It is the fourth largest local police force in England and Wales by number of police officers.

History
West Yorkshire Police was made in 1974, when part of the West Yorkshire Constabulary (itself created in 1968, and being responsible for a much larger area) was joined with the Leeds City Police and Bradford City Police, under the Local Government Act 1972.  The force was originally known as the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police. Some older signs around the Force area, such as the one near the Millgarth Police Station in Leeds city centre, read 'West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police'. The 'Metropolitan' from the police title was removed in 1986 when the Metropolitan counties were ended.West Yorkshire Police: Policing Firsts 
Suggestions made by the Home Secretary on 21 March 2006 would see the force join with North Yorkshire Police, South Yorkshire Police and Humberside Police to form a better police force for the entire region, but this suggestion failed.

On 12 December 2006, Sir Norman Bettison was announced as the new chief constable, replacing Colin Cramphorn and resigned from his position on 24 October 2012. He was replaced by Temporary Chief Constable John Parkinson until Mark Gilmore was made chief constable on 1 February 2013.

In 2018, it was thought West Yorkshire Police would lose 400 officers from its 4,800 officers due to austerity.

Well-known cases
The look for the Yorkshire Ripper (1975 to 1981)
Chapeltown riots (1975, 1981 and 1987)
Bradford riots (2001)
Harehills riot (2001)
Hunt for killer David Bieber (2003)
The disappearance of Shannon Mathews (2008)
The murder of Jo Cox, MP (2016)
Assault on Syrian migrants, Almondbury Community School (2018)

References

Category:Law enforcement agencies of the United Kingdom
Category:1974 establishments in England