West Midlands Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. Covering an area with nearly 2.9 million inhabitants, which includes the cities of Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and also the Black Country; the force is made up of 6,944 Police Officers, supported by 3,131 Police Staff, 303 Special Constables and 506 Police Community Support Officers – with these 10,884 employees, this makes it the largest force in England and Wales behind the Metropolitan Police and third-largest force in the United Kingdom after the aforementioned force and Police Scotland. The force is currently led by Chief Constable Dave Thompson. The force area is divided into ten Local Policing Units , each being served by four core policing teams – Response, Neighbourhood, Investigation and Community Action & Priority – with the support of a number of specialist crime teams. These specialist teams include CID, traffic and a firearms unit who provide a twenty-four-hour availability to attend reported incidents involving the use of firearms and knives. From comparative data published by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for the twelve months up to September 2013, West Midlands Police recorded 62.93 crimes per 1000 population against an average for England and Wales of 61.39. Total recorded crime was down 3% on the same period the previous year against an average of a 3% fall nationally. Detection rates for the same period were 23% against a national average of 29% and victim surveys indicated 84.76% of victims were satisfied with overall service provided by West Midlands Police compared against a national average of around 85%. West Midlands Police is a partner, alongside Staffordshire Police and West Mercia Police, in the Central Motorway Police Group. The force is party to a number of other resource sharing agreements including the National Police Air Service under which its helicopter is made available as a resource for neighbouring forces.
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