Charges for Private Hire

Could you provide a run down of the prices charged by your force for the private hire of officers under ‘special services’

a. Cost per attending Officer/rank

b. Cost per employment of weapons - ie, how much would it cost to hire a Constable with a firearm (does it vary in accordance with the type of weapon? For instance is it cheaper to hire one with a pistol than a machine gun? – again if this is applicable

c. Cost per officer on horseback if this is applicable

d. cost of attending police car

Is it possible to hire an officer on horseback/ an officer with a police vehicle?

How much money did your force make in 2010 as a result of these private hirings out?

Is it possible to have a break down event by event of how much was made, with details of the event itself?

In accordance with section 1(1) (b) of the Act our response is provided below;

a) Charging for police officers is based on a formula. The calculations on which this formula is based can be found in the ACPO document, Paying the Bill, The document provides a full explanation of cost recovery together with details of charges made for hiring police officers by rank for community/charity events and by Police Support Unit (PSU) for mutual aid. Information is also contained within the document relating to banding of officers, e.g. Band One – Level two Public Order trained officer; Band Two – Police horse and rider/underwater search team/firearms officer and Band Three – Hostage negotiator/helicopter pilot etc. This can be found on the ACPO website at the following web link:

ACPO Finance Website

b) Neither weapons nor officers with weapons are hired out. However they may be supplied in mutual aid situations for other forces, the cost recovery is again covered in the above document.

c) Cheshire Constabulary does not have a mounted section.
d) Please see the above ACPO document.
Your remaining questions:

As stated above we do not have a mounted section, and the question regarding a police vehicle is covered in the above ACPO document.

Cheshire Constabulary polices several events each year. We have previously given details of the costs involved in an FOI response to a similar question which can be found at the web link below. You will also find in the same response how the charging matrix is made up relative to those events.

DIsclosure FOI 2879