Operations Support Department
- Accident Unit
- ANPR
- Casualty Reduction
- Central Accident Records
- Contingency Planning Unit
- Dog Section
- Motor Cycle Section
- North East Air Support Unit
Notwithstanding the devolvement of the Roads Policing Unit to the Area Commands, to further the Force's vision for Neighbourhood Policing, the Operational Support Department maintains the strategic lead on Road Policing as outlined in the Road Policing Strategy for 2006 -2009.
One main feature of this strategy is the aim to reduce the number of road casualties. This will be addressed through providing direction and impetus on themes of education, engineering and enforcement, assisting both operational policing activity and through a Casualty Reduction Forum seek to engage in partnership working to ensure continuous improvement in this area against the Department of Transport's 2010 target figures.
Specific roles within the Operational Support Department such as Traffic Management, Accident Analysis, Collision Investigation, Casualty Reduction Officer and the intelligence led deployment of the Speed Camera Unit in line with County Durham and Darlington's Speed Management Strategy all have an important part to play in the success of the Durham Constabulary towards this specific aim.
In addition, the Central Accident Recording (CAR) team, which processes all accident records for the Force area, will ensure the increased timeliness of accident recording and analysis of accident data in turn identifying accurate causation factors and other road casualty intelligence such as the identification of accident hot-spots.
The Operational Support Department provides operational support to the Area Commands through the intelligence led deployment of resources such as the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) team and the motorcycle section. Both these teams of specialist officers are deployed through the National Intelligence Model (NIM) process. They are effective in addressing the aims of the road policing strategy such as disrupting the use of our roads by criminals and in the case of the motorcycle section combating the anti-social use of vehicles especially the off road use of vehicles.
The Contingency Planning Unit of the operational Support department undertakes two distinct functions; the first being Operational Planning and the second is Contingency Planning so as to progress force compliance with the requirements of The Civil Contingencies Act.
The Operational planning aspect involves the planning of large scale of force events including Royal visits and the co-ordination of other VIP visits. The Contingency Planning aspect necessitates close partnership engagement at varying levels with a number of agencies, in particular other blue light responders and the County Durham & Darlington Civil Contingencies Unit. This area of work, together with the development of emergency response plans is an essential element in ensuring compliance with the Civil Contingencies Act.
The Firearms logistics team is responsible for ensuring that the Force maintains its firearms capabilities and compliance with the Home Office Code of Practice for the Police Use of Firearms and Less Lethal weapons. This is a Home Office Code introduced by the Police Reform Act 2002 and during the year 2006/2007 the Force will undergo an inspection process by the National centre for Policing Excellence (NCPE) to ensure compliance. By necessity this requires a close working relationship with the Firearms Tactical Training centre, which provides all firearms training for both the Durham Constabulary and Cleveland Police.
This centre which is supported by Sergeants and Constables from both Forces and is currently headed by an officer of Inspector rank from the Durham Constabulary reports to a Management Board which is chaired by the Operational Support Departmental Commander.
Through this working partnership, the force is able to develop operational practices and policies, in turn ensuring those operational requirements are supported by the delivery of appropriate and accredited training.
The Operational Support Department also has responsibility for overseeing the involvement of the Durham Constabulary in the North East Air Support Unit (NEASU). This involves officers from the consortium of three forces Durham, Cleveland and Northumbria.
