Where should I look for information about a former chief constable or senior officer of a force?

Start with a recent publication, which attempts to provide dates for the careers of chief constables of British police forces: Martin Stallion and David S Wall, The British police: forces and chief officers 1829-2012 (Police History Society, 2011)

The minute books of the relevant police committee should provide some information about the appointment of a chief constable and, in some cases, other senior officers, such as dates of appointment and leaving, and some details about their background, such as their previous constabulary. If further details are required, such as major events during the period in office, more lengthy research might be required in minute books, scrap books, memoranda books and letter books, if any or all of these survive.

If I know someone was a police officer but not which force they served on, how do I find out which force?

If you do not know which part of the country he or she lived in you require to find out more basic information about the individual from other records – statutory registers, census returns, civil registers of births, marriages and deaths, etc. For basic advice go to the Family History pages.

If you know where someone lived you need to work out which forces operated in that area. Bear in mind that police forces were arranged into burgh, county or amalgamated forces until 1975. Also, some small burgh forces, in the suburbs of cities, were annexed later by Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Someone who lived in Glasgow may have served on a number of forces, for example Glasgow City Police, the Lanarkshire Constabulary, Clyde River Police, or the constabularies of one of Glasgow’s many small burghs (e.g. Govan, Maryhill, Calton, and Partick). You can do this by finding out which county and/or burgh the place concerned was in before 1975. You could ask the relevant local authority archivist or police museum which forces were in operation in or around a particular place at the time in question.

Once you have a list of forces in that area go to the FAQ How can I find the service record of an individual police officer?

If you have searched all the surviving police personnel records for that area go to the FAQ Why might I be unable to trace a service record of a police officer?

Why might I be unable to trace a service record of a police officer?

Archives which hold police registers frequently receive enquiries where someone researching a police officer does not find an entry on them in the personnel registers concerned. There are several possible reasons why this might be the case:

The individual was a special constable, not a permanent member of the force.
The individual served on another force, e.g. the person lived in Glasgow but served on a county or suburban burgh constabulary.
The individual was not a police officer but worked for the police commissioners in some other capacity (e.g. fireman, clerk, typist).
The individual began service before personnel register was started, and an earlier register is not extant.
The personnel registers do not survive for that force.
The individual did not progress beyond the status of ‘probationary constable’ (i.e. he or she did not complete a probationary period and merit enrolment in the register of constables).
Clerical error – although this is unlikely, since personnel registers were carefully kept, as they were the main source of information for police pension purposes.