History

The present Force covers the Local Authority Region of Highland and the Island Authorities of Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles.Highland is made up of the former Counties of Inverness-shire, Ross & Cromarty, Nairn, Caithness, and Sutherland, each of which formerly had its own Police force. In addition the Royal Burgh of Inverness formerly maintained its own Force. Also included within Highland are parts of:

Argyllshire (Ardnamurchan and Glencoe); and
Morayshire (Grantown-on-Spey and Cromdale).

Prior to 1857 legislation enabled Scottish Local Authorities set up a Police Force. In 1857 the 'General Police Act' was passed, requiring each County and Burgh to establish an efficient Police force, or to unite with a neighbouring County for Police purposes. The post of Her Majesty's inspector of Constabulary for Scotland was instituted, and the holder of that post would be tasked to inspect each Force annually and report to the Government on its efficiency. If certified efficient then the Government would contribute 25 per cent of the cost of wages and clothing for the Force. If inefficient, then the force got nothing - except a hard time!

INVERNESS

The first Police force to be set up in the Scottish Highlands was that of the Inverness-shire - the largest County in Scotland. Its Force first took to the streets on 31 December 1840. At that time the Force did not cover the Town (Burgh) of Inverness, and the Force comprised 19 men, made up of a Chief Officer (Superintendent), three Sub-Inspectors and 15 Ordinary Officers (Constables). In 1841, agreement was reached for the County Force to provide policing services for the Burgh of Inverness, with the Town Officers being integrated into the County Force. This arrangement was terminated in 1847 when the Town Council of Inverness set up a Police Force of its own - Inverness Burgh Police.

The Inverness-shire Constabulary had its Headquarters in the Castle at Inverness, while the Inverness Burgh Police was based in Castle Wynd, no more than 50 yards away. This must have been the shortest distance between two Police Headquarters anywhere in Britain. On 16 November 1968 the two Forces united again, to form the Inverness Constabulary.

ROSS & CROMARTY

Ross-shire was the second largest County in Scotland. It established two Police forces; one (Wester Ross) based on the County Town at Dingwall which had a Sheriff Court and the other (Easter Ross) based in Tain, which also had such a Court. The Wester force was set up in 1850, and the Easter one soon after. The two organisations merged in 1853 to form the Ross-shire Constabulary.At the time of the passing of the 1857 Act the Burgh of Dingwall also had a small Force, of two men.

Last century the 'Black Isle', a peninsula north of Inverness, was a separate County, Cromartyshire. At the time of the passing of the 1857 Act there is no record of a Force existing either in the County of Cromartyshire or in the Burgh of Cromarty.Indeed, there is no record of either of these actually having a proper Force after that, and the Government Inspector was driven to distraction as a result. Eventually, in 1869, the Burgh of Cromarty and Cromarty-shire merged to form the cromarty-shire Constabulary, under the command of the Chief Constable of Ross-shire.

In 1889 the Counties of Ross-shire and Cromarty-shire finally united for Police purposes, to form the Ross & Cromarty Constabulary.

SUTHERLAND

The history of the police in Sutherland is different to that of other Highland Counties. Perhaps due to its remoteness, it evolved a Police force, village by village, rather than setting up a Force for the whole County in one move. Like the other Counties it reorganised to meet the requirements of the 1857 Act. Unlike most other Burghs in the Highlands the County of Dornoch never had its own separate Force, but this is hardly surprising in view of the Burgh's small population.

In 1963 the Police Forces of Sutherland and Ross & Cromarty united to form the Ross & Sutherland Constabulary.

CAITHNESS

As early as 1840 the Burgh of Wick, County Town of Caithness, was employing a policeman to assist the Town Officer during the Herring Fishing Season. Thurso, the other main town in the County, also had a Constable in 1841. In that year the County of Caithness established a Police Force for the rest of the County but the two Burgh Forces remained separate until the requirements of the 1857 Act made them see the light.

A separate community had been set up on the south bank of the River Wick, around what is now the Harbour of Wick. The brainchild of the British Fisheries Society, it was named Pulteneytown and due to its special status it benefited from legislation which among other things allowed it to have its own Police force, which began in 1845.

From 1858, Pulteneytown's police force was subject to inspection in the same way as any other Scottish force but H.M. Inspector had a terrible job trying to get the this inefficient organisation to merge with the County, something it did not do until the turn of the century. In the meantime, in 1863 the Burgh of Wick also decided it was getting a raw deal from the Caithness County force so it opted out and set up a police department of its own. Some force it was, comprising one Chief Officer and the Town Drummer. It finally rejoined the County Force again in 1873, having encountered many problems in the intervening period.

ORKNEY

The Island Counties of Orkney and Shetland to the north of the Scottish Mainland were specifically excluded for the requirements of the 1857 Police Act. This was undoubtedly due to their relative remoteness. Nonetheless Orkney County Council decided to set up its own Police force (for the whole of the County, including the Burghs of Kirkwall and Stromness) in 1858. It remained a small force, with no Government funding or inspection, until 1938 when the provisions of the 1857 were extended to cover the County of Orkney.

SHETLAND

The County of Zetland also decided to have its own County Force in 1883, and the Burgh of Lerwick did likewise in 1892. The two forces united to create the Zetland Constabulary in 1940, when the 1857 Act was extended to the County.

In 1969 the County Forces of Caithness, Orkney and Zetland were merged to form the first Northern Constabulary, with Headquarters in Wick, Caithness.

NAIRN

The County of Nairn, east of Inverness, was a small and fairly self-contained one. It had its own rural police as early as 1850. In 1858 a reorganised County force - comprising a Superintendent and 3 Constables was set up in terms of the 1857 Act.

The Burgh of Nairn had its own Force (2 men) until 1866 when the County force took over policing of the Burgh. Always a small force, it merged with Morayshire Constabulary in 1930 when the two County Councils were united. A further merger occurred in 1949 when Moray and Nairn joined with Aberdeenshire, Kincardineshire and Banffshire to form the Scottish North East Counties Constabulary.

WESTERN ISLES

The Island of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, was part of Ross-shire and was policed by that County's Force. The rest of the Outer Hebridean Islands Harris, the Uists, Benbecula and Barra - (with Skye in the Inner Hebrides) were part of Inverness-shire Constabulary's area.

PRESENT FORCE

On 16 May 1975, reorganisation of Local Government in Scotland resulted in the present Northern Constabulary by a merger of:

Northern (Caithness-Orkney-Shetland) Constabulary; Ross & Sutherland Constabulary; and Inverness Constabulary.

In addition the County of Nairn, and portions of North Argyll and South West Morayshire, were merged into Highland. Initially the new Force comprised three territorial Divisions, roughly equivalent to the three former Force areas. The Divisions were split into twelve Sub Divisions, along the line of the former Counties although on the mainland Inverness-shire was broken up into four smaller areas and Ross-shire into two. The Outer Hebrides was made into one Sub Division, equivalent to the Western Isles Council area.

More recently however, the internal structure of the force was realigned to remove the Divisional structure, with 8 Command Areas Units created instead.