Norman Bettison

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Sir Norman George Bettison
Born	3 January 1956 Rotherham, South Yorkshire
Occupation	Police Officer ACPO

Sir Norman George Bettison, QPM (born 3 January 1956, Rotherham, South Yorkshire) is a British police officer and the current Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police.

Contents 1 Education 2 Career 3 Honours 4 Controversies 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Education

Bettison was born in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. He left school at the age of 16 to join South Yorkshire Police as a cadet. He later attended university, obtaining an M.A. in Philosophy and Psychology from Oxford University and another Master's degree in Business Administration & Media Studies from Sheffield Hallam University.^[1]

[edit] Career

Bettison began his police career in 1975 when he joined South Yorkshire Police as a Constable. He served through the ranks, and in 1993 was appointed Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police.^[2]

He left West Yorkshire in 1998 to become Chief Constable of Merseyside Police,^[3] and enjoyed a six year appointment.^[4] This was despite a difficult introduction when it was reported that he had been involved in the investigation of the Hillsborough Disaster, which was controversial following allegations of bias and "black propaganda" by opponents who claimed he was attempting to shift responsibility for the human crush, in which fans crushed in by others storming into the stadium died, away from the police.^[5][6] A member of Merseyside Police Authority, Councillor Steve Foulkes, said the appointment of Norman Bettison had caused "outrage and extra grief" among the families of the victims of the 1989 disaster.^[3] Bettison offered to meet with the relatives of those who lost their lives at Hillsborough to defuse the controversy.^[7][8]

He retired from the police in January 2005 to become Chief Executive of Centrex, which provided training and development to police forces in the UK and enforcement agencies throughout the world until it was abolished in March 2007.^[9][10]

He rejoined the police service in January 2007 as Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police.^[11] He attempted to secure a package to receive both a retirement pension from Merseyside and a salary from the new post; he threatened legal action but the claim was settled out of court.^[12]

In October 2008, Bettison was touted as a possible replacement for Sir Ian Blair as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, but ruled himself out of consideration citing the politicisation of the role and the way Blair was removed.^[13]

[edit] Honours

Bettison was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University in 2004.^[14] In the Millennium New Year's Honours list, he was awarded the Queen's Police Medal,^[15] and was knighted in 2006.^[16]

[edit] Controversies

Shortly after taking office as Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, Sir Norman ordered a review of shifts worked by officers claiming they did not provide the best service to the public as they included four rest days when officers were not at work.^[17] A new shift pattern comprising of two distinct patterns referred to as VSA 1 and VSA 2 (variable shift arrangement) was produced and commenced in March 2008. Response officers worked VSA 1 and neighbourhood policing teams worked VSA 2. Interestingly, the VSA 2 still included four rest days for officers. Officers posted to Communications Division were allowed to continue working the more popular previous shift pattern, FSDR (Force Standard Duty Rosta) as Communications Division had been able to successfully argue that VSA was not fit for purpose for their requirements. The VSA 1 proved deeply unpopular with many officers claiming that they were more tired than they had been working the previous shift pattern. A report leaked from the Police Federation to local media suggested that there had been an increase of 16,000 hours of sickness between April and August of 2008, a 3.4% increase on the previous year.^[18] After pressure by the police federation a further review was taken and VSA 1 was re-designed and commenced in April 2009. Many officers remain unconvinced as to the need to deviate from the FSDR shift pattern which had allowed West Yorkshire Police to achieve 'very significant performance gains' and be regarded as one of the most improved forces.^[19][20]

The Daily Mail's "Police Review" as well as the Daily Telegraph reported in February 2008 that Bettison had ordered his staff to monitor his article on Wikipedia to remove rude or unflattering comments, with staff replacing it with material from the West Yorkshire Police website.^[21][22]

In an article for the Yorkshire Post, Bettison wrote that over-zealous health and safety officials were making the jobs of his front line officers increasingly more demanding, branding them "the health and safety Taliban".^[23]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official biography page

Police appointments
Preceded by Sir James Sharples	Chief Constable of Merseyside Police 1998 – 2004	Succeeded by Bernard Hogan-Howe
Preceded by Colin Cramphorn	Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police 2007 –	Incumbent