Cleveland Police in further merger with Durham as dog units form collaboration

Cleveland Police’s dog unit is to merge with Durham’s in a move that will further “rub out the boundary line” between the two areas.

Police say it does not mean the two forces are set to become one although briefings have gone to staff over the past week to inform them of the new collaboration between the dog sections, to come into force from March 31.

Super intendant Mark Thornton, head of the Cleveland and Durham Specialist Operations Unit (CDSOU), said that while a “small number” of staff will be redeployed to other units within Cleveland, no redundancies will be made as a result of the collaboration.

Supt Thornton said Cleveland and Durham forces have collaborated going back to 2003, beginning with its Tactical Training Centre, where firearms training takes place.

He said: “Both forces have felt comfortable with that as it’s gone along over the years, and back to 2010, we took the next step in terms of collaboration and that was to bring our roads policing units together.

“2010 rolled into 2012 and there was further collaboration very much around the roads policing element; motorbikes and collision investigation units.

“And 2015 sees us taking the next iteration of that collaboration, and that is to bring our dog support units together.”

He said that while “austerity exists” and savings to the public are needed, the move is about making it easier to cross-border deploy.

He said: “Yes, austerity exists. I’ve given a background of an appetite for collaboration, and yes, as a consequence of this some small numbers will be returned to areas of vacancy within their respective home forces, and they are small numbers. The return of officers still means that the officers are policing in the home force that they’ve come from and also serving the public. It’s not a loss to the public purse.

“I really had the drive to rub out the boundary line between the two force areas. That boundary line doesn’t exist in the criminal’s mind, and certainly the way I articulate it to staff is I want you to feel comfortable to venture into a force area that you possibly wouldn’t have ventured into without blessing and permission by a supervisor in the past.”

The dog support unit will move from its current base near Ormesby Hall to Wynyard.

Asked whether the merger will have an impact on the operational ability of the unit, Supt Thornton said: “For the last 12 months we’ve held a number of vacancies whilst we looked at whether the efficiency and effectiveness of this can take place, and we’ve maximised our efficiencies running with the staff numbers that are there today, so if you delete out the vacancies that we’ve had imposed, it’s not as if we’re actually getting rid of an awful lot of officers out of this particular piece of environment and taking them back into other areas of business.

“My staff will, in the main, find not a great deal of change. A small number will.

“The mantra that I’m asking my staff to be thinking about in all of their daily depolyments are that they are there to keep people safe, tackle criminality and maintain public confidence across the two force areas.”