Sir Norman Bettison Chief Constable West Yorkshire Police

Sir Norman Bettison, has had a a 32-year career in policing taking in three major police forces and a number of National responsibilities.

He was appointed in December, 2006, but he was no stranger to the streets of West Yorkshire, having spent six years as an Assistant Chief Constable in the county up to 1998.

Sir Norman is 52 years of age; he is married and began his police career in 1972 when he joined South Yorkshire Police as a Police Cadet. He joined West Yorkshire as Assistant Chief Constable in 1993.

In 1998 he became Chief Constable of Merseyside where he served for six years. In 2004 he became Chief Executive at Centrex, an organisation that provided support, training and development to all UK police forces and also many international enforcement agencies.

Sir Norman holds a Master’s Degree in Philosophy and Psychology from Oxford University and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Sheffield Hallam University.

He is also a graduate of the FBI Executive Programme. He was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for distinguished service in the Millennium Honour’s List, and received a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to policing in 2006.

He is credited with being the pioneer of Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NPT) a style of policing that engages with local people in addressing and resolving local issues.