County Constabulary West Midlands Police

[Megan]

West Midlands Police have been looking through their archives and have released LOADS of historic pictures.

Some are featured here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-20717022 - and apparently they've put a lot more on Flickr.

[Monty]

Hey Megan,

Many thanks

Here is a British Council film - Man on the Beat - which was shot in Birmingham.

http://film.britishcouncil.org/the-man-on-the-beat

Cheers

Monty

[Mervyn Mitton]

Megan and Monty. Thankyou for the information on the release of material - and for the great old training film.

I see that it was made in 1945 - and apart from the uniform and the marching out to beats - very little had changed

when I was at Hendon in 1967. In fact I found it quite nostalgic. Mervyn

[Monty]

As you know Mervyn, I'm a Ripperologist who has an interest in the Policing of that era. There's bits in that training film the boys of 1888 would recognise.

Monty

:)

[NickLangley]

The level of ignorance displayed by WMP of their own history is jaw-dropping. I'd hazard that the person in charge of this project doesn't even realize that WMP was formed from a number of county borough and city forces. A photo from the early 1950s is captioned "West Midlands Police mounted unit" !!!!

Edited January 7, 2013 by NickLangley

[Mervyn Mitton]

Nick - you could well be right - I have always found that many of the Regulars look on it as a job - whereas the Specials get quite

excited with the history. Having said that not many of them are prepared to give up high paying jobs to join full time.............. Mervyn

[Martin W]

Interesting thread.

Great shot of the old "Bull Ring Center".

I was born and raised in Birmingham so i can appreciate the old familiar images.

When i was a kid i remember my father being in the Special Constabulary.This was back in the 1960's, so i am not sure if he was a member of the WM Police Force or that of the City of Birmingaham Police Force ??

He was stationed at Longbridge in S.W Birmingham,close to where i grew up.

This is photo i have of him from the early 1960's in his uniform.

Regards,Martin.

Edited January 17, 2013 by Martin W