18 July 2011, the North West Air Operations Group was launched. It was a regional collaboration between five forces and police authorities. The service dispatched aircraft from a regional command desk to incidents across Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside and North Wales. The five forces in the North had four helicopters, based at four different locations throughout the North West, providing a service anywhere in the region, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Race and sex discrimination in recruitment In February 2019, Cheshire Constabulary was found guilty of discrimination, having refused to give an applicant a job because he was a white heterosexual man. Despite the applicant, university graduate Matthew Furlong, being judged to have been "well prepared", he was nevertheless rejected for the job with the force falsely claiming that 127 of the other candidates had been equally suitable for the role, a claim an employment tribunal described as a "fallacy". The tribunal was told that Acting Chief Constable Janette McCormick believed "passionately about positive action" and it ruled that Furlong had been a victim of direct discrimination on the grounds of his sexual orientation, with the case believed to be the first in the UK of an organisation misusing positive action to discriminate illegally. Collaborations Cheshire Constabulary is a partner in the following collaborations: Alliance Armed Policing Unit (Cheshire and North Wales) Cheshire and North Wales Police Dogs North West Police Underwater Search & Marine Unit North West Motorway Police Group Safer Schools & Young People's Partnerships Crime statistics Between 2005 and 2007, Cheshire Constabulary's crime statistics for recorded crimes were: PEEL inspection His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) conducts a periodic police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) inspection of each police service's performance. In its latest PEEL inspection, Cheshire Constabulary was rated as follows: Cheshire Constabulary and the media During 2005/06, the force was featured in the BBC TV series Traffic Cops. Former Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy called for the legal age of buying alcohol to increase to the age of 21 as a result of the Garry Newlove murder in 2007. Series 3 of 999: What's Your Emergency?, which aired in mid 2016, followed officers from Cheshire Constabulary alongside Ambulance crews from the North West Ambulance Service. During 2017, Cheshire Constabulary was featured in series 12 of Channel 5' TV programme Police Interceptors. In early 2019, a ten-part