Staffordshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands of England. It is made up of eleven Local Policing Teams, whose boundaries are matched to the nine local authorities within Staffordshire. History A combined force covering Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, called Staffordshire County and Stoke-on-Trent Constabulary, was established on 1 January 1968, as a merger of the Staffordshire County Police and Stoke-on-Trent City Police. This force lost areas to the new West Midlands Police in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 and adopted a shorter name. Under proposals made by the Home Secretary on 6 February 2006, it would have merged with Warwickshire Constabulary, West Mercia Constabulary and West Midlands Police to form a single strategic force for the West Midlands region. However these plans have not been taken forward largely due to public opposition. For 2005/06 Staffordshire police topped the Home Office chart as being the best performing police force in England and Wales. Chief constables 1842–1857: John Hayes Hatton 1857–??: Lt-Col Gilbert Hogg 1888–1929: George Augustus Anson 1929–1951: Colonel Sir Herbert Hunter 1951–1960: George William Richard Hearn 1960–1964: Stanley Edwards Peck 1964–1977: Arthur Rees (previously Chief Constable of Denbighshire, 1957–64) 1977–1996: Charles Henry Kelly 1996–2006: John Giffard 2006–2007: David Swift 2007–2009: Chris Sims 2009–2015: Mike Cunningham 2015–2017: Jane Sawyers 2017–2021: Gareth Morgan 2021: Emma Barnett (temporary) 2021–present: Chris Noble Officers killed in the line of duty The Police Roll of Honour Trust and Police Memorial Trust list and commemorate all British police officers killed in the line of duty. Since its establishment in 1984, the Police Memorial Trust has erected 50 memorials nationally to some of those officers. The following officers of Staffordshire Police are listed by the Trust as having died attempting to prevent, stop or solve a crime, since the turn of the 20th century: PC William Ezra Price, 1903 (fatally injured attempting to arrest three men) PC Brinley James Booth, 1946 (bludgeoned to death while attempting to arrest a suspect) PC John David Taylor, 1986 (pushed out of a building by a suspect) Organisation Staffordshire Police is one of two forces involved in the Central Motorway Police Group along with West Midlands Police. This unit provides roads policing for the motorway network in the West Midlands (mainly M5, M6 and M42). Staffordshire Police has a roads policing unit who police the roads across the county. Staffordshire Police