West Midlands Constabulary

This article is about the force which existed from 1966 to 1974. For the modern-day force, see West Midlands Police.
West Midlands Constabulary
Agency overview
Formed 1 April 1966 (1966-04-01)
Preceding agencies
Dissolved 31 March 1974 (1974-03-31)
Superseding agency West Midlands Police
Legal personality Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction* Country of England, UK
Legal jurisdiction England & Wales
Constituting instrument Police Act 1964
General nature
Operational structure
Agency executives
Parent agency Home Office
Footnotes
* Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction.

The West Midlands Constabulary was a police force in the West Midlands of England.

It was created on 1 April 1966 under the Police Act 1964, with the re-organisation of the Black Country area as the five contiguous county boroughs of Dudley, Walsall, Warley, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton. Dudley Borough Police, Walsall Borough Police and Wolverhampton Borough Police were incorporated wholly into the new force. It also took in parts of the Staffordshire Constabulary and Worcestershire Constabulary.[1]

The force was initially headed by Chief Constable Norman W. Goodchild, former Chief Constable of Wolverhampton Borough Police, until 1967, when he was replaced by Edwin Solomon, former Chief Constable of Walsall Borough Police.[2]

On 1 April 1974 it amalgamated with the Birmingham City Police and parts of Staffordshire County and Stoke-on-Trent Constabulary, Warwickshire and Coventry Constabulary and West Mercia Constabulary to form the West Midlands Police, because of the Local Government Act 1972 which created the new West Midlands metropolitan county, which covered the West Midlands constabulary area along with Birmingham and Coventry and a few other surrounding towns.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Home Office circular 67-1966 announcing the force's creation
  2. ↑ History of WM Police. Accessed via the Wayback Machine on 31 January 2006
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