Inverness Constabulary Badenoch Sub Division police staff 1975 : 無料・フリー素材/写真
Inverness Constabulary Badenoch Sub Division police staff 1975 / conner395
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示 2.1 |
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| 説明 | 1,000 views on 28th January 2014The two group photographs of staff in uniform were taken out in the back yard of the former Aviemore Police Station on or about 15th May 1975, in the final days of Inverness Constabulary. The Police Ball photo would have been taken at Coylumbridge Hotel, near Aviemore in January 1973 and the Mountain Rescue Team photo was taken in 1972 at the summit of Cairn Gorm (Gaelic – The Blue Hill).Aviemore was long the main centre of activity in police terms in respect of the Badenoch area, which was a busy place. The Sub Division covered the A9 Perth/Inverness trunk road, and at both the north (Slochd) and south (Drumochter) the weather was a main concern in winter. Both high summits were (and still are) prone to horrendous blizzards, and the blowing snow and white-out conditions result in appalling conditions which police require to patrol to ensure no person is trapped in a vehicle. The sub Division also covered the very popular Cairngorms Mountain range, much visited by well-equipped outdoor pursuit enthusiasts and not-so-well-prepared day trippers alike. Naive and poorly clad tourists would make up many of the injured/stranded (or worse) casualties on the mountains. In addition to local civilian mountain rescue teams, the Inverness Constabulary also had cadres of locally-based experienced officers (in each of the three mountain areas in the force’s jurisdiction – Cairngorms, Lochaber, and Skye) who formed the part of force Mountain Rescue Team.The (uniform) group photos were taken to commemorate the end of the force, which was merged with Ross & Sutherland Constabulary and Northern (Caithness-Orkney-Shetland) Constabulary on 16th May 1975 to form NORTHERN CONSTABULARY. Somewhat surprisingly, this round of amalgamations (“regionalisation”) when all Scottish County and Burgh police forces became one of 8 Regional forces, was the last range of mergers in the Scottish Police for a generation - until 1st April 2013 when the current Police Service of Scotland was created from all the 8 Regional forces. By a “generation”, I mean many officers joined the same force as they would retire from 30 years later - which is remarkable, given the frequency of mergers in the preceding “generation”)Chief Inspector MacLean, being the stickler for efficiency, arranged TWO photographs – one with ALL staff (including Civilian Support staff and Traffic Wardens) and one purely of police officers.The Police only photograph line-up is:- Stations: (A) = Aviemore (B) Boat of Garten (C) Carr Bridge (K) Kingussie (N) Newtonmore (NB) Nethybridge Back Row (L-R): PC WJL Stewart (B); PC TH MacCorquodale (A); PC KM Newbigging (A); PC JA Ferguson (A); PC RGT Smart(A); PC AD Henderson (K);Middle Row: Cadet ?; PC R Severn (A); PC MF Beaton (N); PC JM Smart (K); PC Angus MacLean (K); PC AD MacLean (K); Cadet ?Front Row: DC N MacLeod (K) PS AW Ross (K); PS GM Paton (K); Ch Insp JA MacLean (K); PS S MacDonald (A) Cadet G Panton (A); DC AC MacDonald (A)Absent – 2 or 3 from (A) (Night Shift) plus the officer from (C) and the officer from (NB)Badenoch Sub division was a fairly recent creation – for most of the duration of Inverness-shire Constabulary (the “Spey Valley” – or Strathspey) was part of the “Home Division” or Inverness District of the force, under the command of an Inspector at Force HQ in Inverness Castle, and with a Sergeant at Kingussie.Prior to the 1968 merger, the post of Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) was duly created, based in Kingussie – the long-time “Capital” town of Badenoch and Strathspey and with Inspector rank. For the most part of the 1960s however the main centre of the area was Aviemore where the “Aviemore Centre” had been constructed and a mixture of outdoor pursuits (skiing, hill-walking, climbing, orienteering) and holiday entertainment was attracting considerable numbers of holidaymakers and youngster to the area. Despite that however, Aviemore remained only a police section Station, the Sergeant in Aviemore occupying the Police Station house (a relic of the days when the village was a one-officer station) with a large – but not large enough – Station built alongside, with its upper storey doubling as a Mountain Rescue Team base/post. Police Staffing was gradually increased over the intervening years as Aviemore became very much Scotland’s Highland Entertainment and Leisure Capital, attracting both families and groups of teenagers, and also a fair number of people up to no good. Despite that, and because facilities had recently been upgraded at Kingussie Police Station, Kingussie remained the principal station in the area with the SDO, CID and Traffic continuing to be based there rather than at Aviemore. Finally, and with Aviemore’s attractions already on the wane, a decision was taken to upgrade Aviemore to 24 hour patrol coverage. This took place on 5th November 1973, with a number of officers being transferred in to provide sufficient man-power (and woman-power too, as several new arrivals were female officers), albeit the Section Sergeant at Aviemore still being the only local supervisor. One of those drafted in was a young probationer, PC 95, David Conner –dunno what became of him?Inspector at Kingussie since November 1972 was Duncan MacKenzie (“Duncan Dornie”) who had been promoted from Detective Sergeant at Inverness. He returned to Inverness at Detective Inspector in June 1974 and his successor as SDO was newly promoted Chief Inspector John A MacLean (“Tash”) – who had been Sergeant at Aviemore from 1965 to 1971. The rank of Chief Inspector as Officer in Charge of Badenoch & Strathspey (and, from 1996, Nairn) would continue until 2010 when it reverted to Inspector.The Station at Aviemore became less and less suitable as staffing, and space requirements grew. Being hemmed in by other premises, expansion was not an option, and in the early 1990s a new, much larger, Station was built directly across the road, taking full advantage of a gradient down to the railway line to produce a two-storey building with its first floor at street level and considerable office/meeting room etc space in the “basement”, with a large secure yard out back. The old Station and House were demolished and the area redeveloped. The increased space enabled the Sub Divisional (by now Area Command) facilities and management to be relocated from Kingussie. Also in the early 1990s The Area Command became the development area for a new computer system – CCRS (Computerised Crime Reporting System) –being intended for force-wide use. In 1993 a small project ream was set up by Chief Constable Hugh MacMillan to examine the stalled development, and that team’s work (I am proud to say I was one of the team) saw a vastly revised and improved computer system go live force-wide in January 1995, replacing much of the force’s paper-based records and reports with recording of information on the IMPACT (Information Management in Police applications for Control and Tracking) networked relational database system. Although envisaged as a short-term solution – ahead of a national system being implemented – it is remarkable to note that IMPACT remains in use 19 years on (albeit with fancy – and expensive - Command & Control bolted on at the front end, and an additional module at the rear end to meet next generation electronic information exchange requirements to Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (Crown Prosecutors). Its end is nigh however as Police Scotland standardisation/rationalisation policies are revealed at eye-watering cost - but I reckon NorCon had great value from its 19 years of IMPACT. And to think some folk reckoned it would never work! (One reason for its undoubted success and acceptance by users was the fact that they had plenty opportunity to examine, test and make suggestions for enhancement, prior to its being introduced. Never impose –empower! (The team motto – Non Volvo Reinvenire “Don’t Reinvent the Wheel!!) Fact is too that I knew I was going back on the street when the team ended, and would be using the system as an operational officer - so if it did not work, it would do me no favours with my colleagues!! Anyhow, IMPACT is a whole story on its own – maybe one day I shall write a book on that!Regionalisation in 1975 primarily involved restructuring and re-alignment of Local Government and the police areas were thus revised to suit. Thus Northern Constabulary (and Highland Region) took in the Burgh of Grantown-on-Spey and the Parish of Cromdale, both formerly in Morayshire, and these new areas were merged into Badenoch & Strathspey Sub Division. The Sergeant at Grantown took on responsibility for the former Inverness-shire beats of Nethybridge and later Carr Bridge and Boat of Garten. Aviemore Section then included Boat of Garten Police Station. Kingussie Section also included Newtonmore Police Station. Nethybridge, Carr Bridge, Boat of Garten, and Newtonmore (all one-officer stations) have all subsequently closed and the premises sold off. Created on 16th November 1968, the Inverness Constabulary was a merger of Inverness-shire Constabulary and Inverness Burgh Police. Both forces had a claim to fame, Inverness-shire being the largest County in Scotland and Inverness Burgh being the very last municipal police force in Scotland (other than the 4 Big Cities which survived until 1975). Inverness Constabulary actually changed very little in terms of the effects of amalgamation, compared to many other such mergers. The County Chief Constable, Andrew McClure became Chief of the combined force and Thomas Sorley, The Burgh Chief Constable became Deputy Chief of the new force. Even numbering was rather straightforward. County Sergeants and Constables had no change to their previous shoulder-numbers, while the IBP ones simply incremented their number by 100. Thus it was possible to identify from shoulder number whether an officer was “Burgh” or “County”. Yours truly received a two-digit number on joined in 1973 – so I became a “County man” – and with it being the largest County in Scotland there were many County locations to be posted to! Sadly in its 7 year existence, agreement was never reached for new epaulette insignia and no such insignia was worn in that period – resulting in officers (such as me) who attended the Scottish Police College with only numeral on our epaulettes being referred to the “Secret Police”!!! Ah, the memories! Thanks to several different retired officers for providing me with these photos. |
| 撮影日 | 1975-05-15 12:00:00 |
| 撮影者 | conner395 , Inverness, Scotland |
| タグ | |
| 撮影地 | Aviemore, Scotland, United Kingdom 地図 |