Special Police - United Kingdom

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom special police force has a special meaning in law and describes one of the forces defined as such in legislation including:

• Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
• Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006
• Police and Justice Act 2006

They are distinguished from other police forces by having duties and responsibilities associated with particular legal or illegal activities rather than the geographical areas which are served by a single territorial police force.

There are several such forces:

• British Transport Police: Responsible for policing the rail network in Great Britain.
• Civil Nuclear Constabulary: Non-military nuclear installations and non-military nuclear material in transit.
• Ministry of Defence Police: Ministry of Defence property, personnel, other defence interests, UK nuclear weapons and special nuclear materials.
• Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency: Involved in the investigation of serious crime and illegal drugs in Scotland, renamed from the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency.

Note: the Serious Organised Crime Agency (whose full powers are limited to England and Wales) is not a police force but an agency responsible to a Secretary of State; however, its workforce includes constables drawn from various UK police forces.

Constables of the special police forces generally have constabulary powers when operating within the legal or geographical area they are responsible for. If a territorial police force (or one of its constables) asks for assistance, or if police action is required and it would be impractical to wait for an officer of the local territorial force to arrive, then constables of special police forces can exercise their "extended jurisdiction" giving them powers to deal with the situation.

Although all territorial police forces in England and Wales have Police Community Support Officers (PCSO), currently only the British Transport Police is the only special police force to employ them. This is somewhat limited though as they are only deployed in England and Wales and not Scotland due to the limitations of the Police Reform Act 2002 that empowers PCSOs. This act does not extend to Scotland.

In the United Kingdom the basic phrase "special police" has no particular meaning and is not usually used to describe a member of a special police force in preference to standard descriptions; "special constables" are voluntary and/or part-time members found in both territorial and special police forces.