Northamptonshire Police

The chief constable is the most senior officer within Northamptonshire Police and holds command of the force. The chief constable is accountable to the police and crime commissioner, who appoints chief constables and may dismiss them.

Shortly after their election to office, the PCC is required to produce a Police and Crime Plan. The plan must include their objectives for policing, what resources will be provided to the Chief Constable and how performance will be measured. Both the PCC and the Chief Constable must have regard to the Police and Crime Plan in the exercise of their duties. The PCC is required to produce an annual report to the public on progress in policing. The Police and Crime Plan 2014-2017 is Northamptonshire Police's foundation document.

The PCC is charged with managing the 'police fund', from which all policing is financed. The bulk of funding for the police fund comes from the Home Office in the form of an annual grant (calculated on a proportionate basis by the Home Office to take into account the differences between the 43 forces in England and Wales, which vary significantly in terms of population, geographical size, crime levels and trends), though the PCC has the authority to set a precept on the Council Tax to raise additional funds. The PCC is responsible for setting the budget for the Force, which includes allocating enough money from the overall policing budget to ensure that they can discharge their own functions effectively.

The term regular member, or "Regular", refers to the more than 1,220 regular police constables who are trained, attested and paid officers of the Force, and include all the ranks from Constable to Chief Constable. They are responsible for investigating crime, and have the authority to make arrests. Regulars are responsible for general policing duties and serve in a variety of operational and administrative roles within the Force, including: major crime investigations, emergency response, forensic identification, forensic collision reconstruction, bike patrol, explosives disposal and police dog services. Also included are administrative roles including corporate services (finance, HR, etc.), policy analysis, public affairs and professional standards.

In law, every member of a police force is a constable whatever their actual rank, in the sense that, despite being a low-ranking or high-ranking officer, all have the same powers of arrest. The basic police powers of arrest and search of an ordinary Constable are identical to those of a superintendent or chief constable; however certain higher ranks are given administrative powers to authorise certain police actions. In England and Wales, these include the powers to:

• authorise the continued detention of up to 24 hours of a person arrested for an offence and brought to a police station (granted to sergeants and above at designated police stations),
• authorise section 18 (1) PACE house searches (granted to inspectors and above), or
• extend the length of prisoner detention to 36 hours (granted to Superintendents).

Some authorities are matters of force or national or force policy, such as authorising the use of spike strips, and authorising the use of safe controlled crashes of pursued vehicles, by trained officers.

In relation to police officers of the territorial police forces of England and Wales, section 30 of the Police Act 1996 states that "a member of a police force shall have all the powers and privileges of a Constable throughout England and Wales and the adjacent United Kingdom waters". Police officers do not need to be on duty to exercise their powers and can act off duty if circumstances require it (technically placing themselves back on duty). Officers from the police forces of Scotland and Northern Ireland and non-territorial special police forces have different jurisdictions.

Officers holding ranks up to and including Chief Superintendent who are members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) or Special Branch (and certain other units) have the prefix "Detective" before their rank. Due to the nature of their duties, these officers generally wear plain clothes and so do not wear the corresponding rank insignia; however, they still operate within the same structure as their uniformed counterparts.

Like most of the police forces of the United Kingdom, Northamptonshire Police uses a standardised set of ranks that were chosen by Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel in 1829. The ranks at that time were deliberately chosen so that they did not correspond with military ranking (with the exception of Sergeant), due to fears of a paramilitary force. Northamptonshire Police have a number of chief inspectors and detective chief inspectors as well as three chief superintendents.

Great Britain Police ranks and insignia
Rank	Chief constable	Deputy chief constable	Assistant chief constable	Chief superintendent	Superintendent	Chief inspector	Inspector	Sergeant	Constable
Epaulette insignia

Special constables are volunteer police officers who have exactly the same powers as a regular officer, and (with minor exceptions) wear the same uniform and are issued the same equipment. Special constables are assigned to Safer Community Teams (SCTs) and work alongside police officers and PCSOs, to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour, and help improve public confidence and satisfaction. In addition, specials support operations across the Force, carry out plain-clothed patrols, gather intelligence and execute warrants.

Northamptonshire Police Special Constabulary Ranks
Rank	Special Constable	Special Sergeant	Special Inspector	Special Chief Officer
Epaulette Insignia
Note	The Force uses collar numbers that start with "3" to identify Special Constables Reference[8]

The Northamptonshire Emergency Services Cadets deliver a combined emergency services curriculum allowing young people to develop skills across their emergency services as well as social and life skills. Their cadet scheme is open to all young people who are aged 13–18 and represent their local communities. NESC are a registered charity supported by Northamptonshire Police, Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue and East Midlands Ambulance Service.

NESC support all the emergency services with operational policing and community engagement. The programme is open to all young people regardless of their career ambitions or capabilities. The programme aims to develop participant skills that will be of benefit to communities and employers.

A police community support officer (PCSO) is a uniformed civilian member of police support staff. They are non-warranted but are provided a variety of police powers. PCSO's work within Safer Community Teams composed of PCSO's, regular officers and special constables to undertake high visibility patrolling, tackling anti-social behaviour, dealing with minor offences, gathering criminal intelligence and supporting front-line policing.

Northamptonshire Police vehicles on patrol in 2015

As of January 2016, Northamptonshire Police use a range of vehicles to perform their duties.[9] Vehicles are used for regular patrols and response, armed response, road crime units, and dog units. They also use motorcycles.

Northamptonshire Police do not have their own aircraft as all UK police forces are now supported by the centralised National Police Air Service.

Northamptonshire was formerly a member of the shared service that works to collaborate and share officers,[10] resources and equipment between Lincolnshire Police and Leicestershire Police.

In 2011, Northamptonshire Police was one of the police forces critical of the costs of using a procurement framework agreement, Sprint ii, to purchase IT supplies from a sole supplier. Sprint ii was set up by the government's Crown Commercial Service in 2010 and mandated for police authority use from March 2011, but concerns were raised that costs were higher than they would be using other collaborative purchasing channels.[11] The mandate expired at the end of the life of the framework agreement.[12]

On 19 August 2019, then chief constable Nick Adderley announced that he would be equipping all front line officers with tasers,[13] after a Police Federation of England and Wales poll found that 94% of officers would like to see more officers armed with tasers. Adderley stated that the deployment would take approximately 18 months and cost the force around £220,000,[14] but he felt that it was justifiable, given the increase in violent attacks against officers.[15]