Northamptonshire Police has been collaborating with other forces from across the East Midlands on a range of activities for the last decade.
These collaborations have greatly enhanced specialist capabilities and resilience within the region as well as delivering significant savings to participating Forces.
Senior government officials have often cited the East Midlands’ approach to collaboration as best practice, challenging other areas to learn from our regional experience.
Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold has made it one of his key priorities to build on the strong foundation of collaborative working and work with fellow Commissioners and policing colleagues in the region to explore further ways in which forces can work together.
Driving the collaboration agenda are five guiding principles:
local policing remains local;
any collaboration helps deliver a more efficient and/or effective policing service for Northamptonshire;
all areas of business are considered;
decisions not to participate in a particular collaboration are reviewed regularly, as circumstances may change; and
any costs and/or benefits are shared between participating forces.
Recent collaborative work has included an IT collaboration that will allow all five forces to share intelligence data more efficiently. This has already helped in detecting crime and prosecuting offenders.
The five regional Commissioners and Chief Constables (Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire) will continue to meet regularly to discuss regional collaboration, reviewing existing collaborative work and understanding the business cases for future collaboration.
Regional Collaboration Bodies
East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU)
Involves all five forces providing specialist crime services relating to Major Crime Investigation, Organised Crime Group Management, Forensic Services and Intelligence.
East Midlands Collaborative Human Resources, Learning and Development (EMCHRS L & D)
Operates across Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire providing cost effective and innovative solutions to learning needs for policing. In addition an Occupational Health Service forms part of this arrangement.
East Midlands Legal Services (EMLS)
Provides legal advice to Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables across all five forces in the East Midlands region in areas such as employment, court and disciplinary, civil litigation and commercial law.
East Midlands Counter Terrorism Intelligence Unit (EMCTIU)
Provides a regional approach to tackling terrorism and the domestic extremism threat across all five forces in the East Midlands region.
East Midlands Criminal Justice Service (EMCJS)
Brings together Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire to provide a single approach to services such as Custody, Prosecutions and Victim Services, working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service and the Courts.
