Police mutual aid
01 January 1991
Police mutual aid
bacdoc March=1996
Circular to:
The Chief Officer of Police
The Clerk to the Police Authority
Dear Sir
HOME OFFICE CIRCULAR 1986
THE MUTUAL AID CO-ORDINATION CENTRE, MUTUAL AID AND POLICE SUPPORT
UNITS
Introduction
At its meeting on 19 March 1986, the Police Advisory Board for England and Wales
considered papers by the Association of Metropolitan Authorities and by the
Association of Chief Police Officers on a number of policing matters arising
from the miners' dispute. These included the arrangements for coordinating
requests for mutual aid. It was noted that there was continuing public
misunderstanding about the nature of these arrangements, in particular the
functions and status of the National Reporting Centre (NRC) at New Scotland
Yard. It appeared that considerable confusion arose from the title of the NRC
and the lack of available information about the subject. This circular
sets out the arrangements for the activation and control of the Centre, and
related matters.
Designation and Location
2. The Home Secretary has agreed to the ACPO recommendation that the NRC should
be redesignated the Mutual Aid Co-ordination Centre (MACC). The MACC will be
located at New Scotland Yard (as was the NRC).
Activation and control of the MACC
3. The MACC will (like the NRC) be activated and controlled by the President of
ACPO (who has this responsibility ex officio) and not by the Home Office. When
the MACC is fully activated, day to day operations will be the responsibility
of an officer of Deputy Chief Constable rank, known as the Mutual Aid
Coordinator, assisted by supporting staff.
Role of the MACC
4. The MACC is designed to make effective in modern circumstances
the principle of mutual aid between police forces which is a traditional
part of British policing. Standing local arrangements for mutual aid
between forces are in frequent use and require no central co-ordination.
When the demands on manpower or other resource implications in a force
or forces are such that local mutual aid arrangements are unlikely to be
adequate, the MACC provides the means for ensuring that mutual aid can
be provided on a national basis and in a coordinated fashion to forces
that require it. In a situation in which the MACC is in operation, as
in any other, the direction and control of police operations within a
force area, including the control of officers provided under mutual aid,
is the responsibility of the individual chief officer of police. The
MACC is responsible for coordinating requests by chief officers for
mutual aid assistance; it does not have the power to take the initiative
in moving police officers from one police area to another.
Statutory background
5. Section 14(1) of the Police Act 1964 provides that "the chief
officer of police of any police force may, on the application of the
chief officer of police of any other police force, provide constables or
other assistance for the purpose of enabling the other force to meet any
special demand on its resources." Section 14(2) of the Police Act 1964
provides a reserve power for the Home Secretary to direct one chief
officer to assist another in the interests of public safety or order
where satisfactory arrangements under section 14(1) cannot be made or
cannot be made in time.
There is no record of this power ever having been used. The Home
Secretary would not wish to resort to this power unless voluntary
arrangements failed.
6. The terms of reference of the MACC are:
(a) To arrange mutual aid when:
(i) the national situation demands it; and
(ii) local mutual aid arrangements are inadequate or would
create difficulties in deploying police resources on a national basis;
(b) To collate and disseminate any information relating to the
situation for which the MACC is activated and to provide the Home
Secretary with such information as he may need<