West Yorkshire Police

Friday, 16th October, 2015 Note : audio clips can be found below of DI Vanessa Smith providing short cyber security tips A specialist new team has come 'on line' this autumn to take the fight to cyber criminals in West Yorkshire. Specialist cyber skilled staff have been recruited to provide West Yorkshire Police with cutting edge skills in combating cyber-crime, and in using the latest techniques to help enhance traditional investigations. The unit has been funded by a £250,000 investment by West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns Williamson and will operate until 2017 to help enhance work already ongoing in the force to investigate cyber (technology e…

Thurday 15th October 2015 Changes in the way crimes are recorded have led to an 8 per cent increase in recorded crime in West Yorkshire, new figures for the year up to the end of June show. The rise follows a reported 30-year low in recorded crime and is consistent with the trend in other forces due to stricter adherence to the National Crime Recording Standards following an HMIC report last year which recommended forces should record crime differently. West Yorkshire is in line with the national trend, which shows significant increases in recorded crime, particularly in relation to recorded violent crime - up 45.5 per cent - and sexual offences - up 72 per cent - due …

Leeds man Gary Bryan, who was the subject of an earlier missing persons appeal, has been found safe and well. We are grateful to everyone who assisted in circulating the appeal. For non-emergencies dial 101 In an emergency always dial 999 more View the full article

Monday, 12 October 2015 West Yorkshire Police say they are increasingly concerned about risks to officers after additional monitoring procedures undertaken with local staff representatives showed there were 51 assaults on police officers and staff in the last six weeks. Assistant Chief Constable Mark Milsom said violence against staff was not simply 'part of the job' and highlighted a series of attacks on West Yorkshire Police officers over the past weekend. On Kentmere Avenue in Seacroft on Saturday morning a Leeds PC intervened in a domestic incident after he saw a man and woman arguing. The officer, who had been taking a missing child home, was attacked from behind…

Firstly hi to everyone, new here, first post as doing some research and came across this site, I have an assessment for west Yorkshire specials next week. About me: I'm a bit long in the tooth having served 26 years as a firefighter, still serving but want a new challenge and the police is something I have always wanted to do....... So here comes the pickle, I have a couple of convictions from way back in the 18th century I think , ...(in my late teens, early twenties) I assume I can't say what they were on here but they were both the same and involved going to court and receiving a fine. One of my questions is I declared these on my application and have been put throug…

The death of a man found with serious head injuries in Leeds on Monday night is no longer being treated as murder. Nicolai Brown, aged 27, was found by officers in Back Moorfield Terrace, Armley, after police were called at 9.21pm to reports of a man in distress in the street in neighbouring Moorfield Avenue. A post mortem examination has now shown he died as a result of a serious skull fracture consistent with a fall. The 43-year-old man who was arrested in connection with the incident has been released without charge. Detective Superintendent Nick Wallen, of West Yorkshire Police Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, said: "The initial circumstances surrounding Mr Brown’…

Monday, 5 October 2015 A new regional approach aimed at reducing the theft of Transit-style vans across Yorkshire and the Humber has made an excellent start. In its first weekend, officers from the four police forces arrested 21 people and recovered eight vehicles which were believed to have been stolen. A further 29 were seized for a range of road traffic offences, including no insurance. The new approach sees officers collaborating with partners including vehicle manufacturers, to tackle this type of crime and uses tactics, such as automatic number plate recognition technology, to target offenders. Detective Chief Inspector Steve Thomas, said: "The theft of Tr…

Nearly a third of pubs and bars targeted in a police test purchase operation in Leeds sold alcohol to underage children. The operation on Friday last week (25/9) saw officers send 15-year-old volunteers, who look their age, into ten pubs and bars in Hyde Park and Headingley to attempt to buy alcohol. Three premises failed the test and sold alcohol to them. Sergeant Dave Shaw, from Leeds District Licensing, said: "The thirty per cent failure rate on this latest operation is completely unacceptable and shows that licensed premises need to be doing more to comply with the law and prevent children from buying alcohol. "Children and alcohol is a dangerous mix that affects t…

Friday October 2, 2015 Detectives investigating the 50-year-old murder of a Wakefield schoolgirl have uncovered new lines of enquiry as part of a major re-investigation of the case. Officers investigating the 1965 murder of 14-year-old Elsie Frost are appealing for information to identify a previously unknown man in a white coat on a bicycle who was seen near the murder scene on the afternoon she died. West Yorkshire Police's Homicide and Major Enquiry Team are making the appeal as part of a first ever full re-investigation of the murder of Wakefield teenager Elsie Frost who was murdered on a towpath near the Calder and Hebble Canal in October 1965. Officers now bel…

Wednesday, 30th September, 2015 Detectives in Kirklees have released CCTV images of a man they would like to speak to in connection with a robbery last week in Birkenshaw. The incident took place on Wednesday 23 September around 12.50pm on Moor Lane, when an 82-year-old woman answered the door to an unknown male, who claimed someone had stolen her handbag. The man then entered the property, snatching a bag containing an amount of cash, before pushing her to the floor and making off. The suspect is described as a white male, aged 35-40 years, around 5"8" tall of medium build, wearing dark coloured clothing. The suspect spoke with a local accent. Detective Constable Ri…

Tuesday, 29th September, 2015 Last month, West Yorkshire Police confirmed that it had identified that its Police Community Support Officers had, for a period of time, been issuing non-endorsable Police Fixed Penalty Notices for parking offences, when they had not been correctly granted powers to do so. Although they had been authorised by the Chief Constable to exercise such powers, an administrative error meant that the authorisation was invalid. This anomaly has since been corrected and our PCSOs now have the full range of powers available to them, as was always intended to be the case. A search of our systems showed that about 16,000 tickets may have been affected, …

Two men and a woman will appear in court tomorrow after being charged following an alleged affray and criminal damage incident in Normanton last week. Catherine Price (32) of Acre Road, Middleton, Michael Patrick Price (24) from Thorne in Doncaster and Kevin Price (24) of Westerton Road, Tingley, will all appear before Wakefield Magistrates tomorrow morning after being charged with affray and criminal damage in relation to an incident which occurred at Queensway, Normanton around 10pm on Thursday 24th September. William Chapman (33) from Queen Elizabeth Drive, Normanton, appeared before Leeds Magistrates on Saturday September 26 after being charged with assault, dangero…

Two men and a woman will appear in court tomorrow after being charged following an alleged affray and criminal damage incident in Normanton last week. Catherine Price (32) of Acre Road, Middleton, Michael Patrick Price (24) from Thorne in Doncaster and Kevin Price (24) of Westerton Road, Tingley, will all appear before Wakefield Magistrates tomorrow morning after being charged with affray and criminal damage in relation to an incident which occurred at Queensway, Normanton around 10pm on Thursday 24th September. William Chapman (33) from Queen Elizabeth Drive, Normanton, appeared before Leeds Magistrates on Saturday September 26 after being charged with assault, dangero…