West Yorkshire Constabulary

The West Yorkshire Constabulary (WYC) was, from 1968 to 1974, the statutory police force for the West Riding of Yorkshire, in northern England.

It was formed under the Police Act 1964, and was a merger of the previous West Riding Constabulary along with six borough forces for the county boroughs of Barnsley, Dewsbury, Doncaster, Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield. The other four West Riding county boroughs, Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield and Rotherham, retained independent police forces (a merged force for Sheffield/Rotherham).

The West Riding Constabulary had been originally set up in 1856, as required by the County and Borough Police Act 1856. The first Chief Constable was Lt Col C. A. Cobbe. The force's strength was 354 by the end of the year, and its headquarters were at Wakefield.^[1]

In 1974 the force was split, under the Local Government Act 1972. The bulk of the force went to form the new West Yorkshire Police (with Bradford and Leeds) and South Yorkshire Police (with Sheffield and Rotherham Constabulary the former Barnsley and Doncaster County Borough forces and the interlinked county areas), with other parts coming under the North Yorkshire Police, Cumbria Constabulary, Humberside Police, and Lancashire Police forces. The sub-division of Saddleworth, part of the Huddersfield division of the West Yorkshire Constabulary, was taken into the new Greater Manchester Police.