Merseyside police vehicle, Kia, MD21EJC, parked in the Albert Dock, Liverpool city centre, Merseyside, England, UK, L3 4AF

Merseyside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Merseyside in North West England. The service area is 647 square kilometres with a population of around 1.5 million. As of September 2017 the service has 3, 484 police officers, 1, 619 police staff, 253 police community support officers, 155 designated officers and 208 special constables. The force is led by Chief Constable Serena Kennedy. History The service came into being in 1974 when Merseyside was created, and is a successor to the Liverpool and Bootle Constabulary (itself formed in 1967 by a merger of the Liverpool City Police with the Bootle Borough Police), along with parts of Cheshire Constabulary and Lancashire Constabulary. A proposal to merge the force with the Cheshire Constabulary to form a strategic police force was made by the Home Secretary on 6 February 2006 but later abandoned. Merseyside maintained in 2018 it could lose 300 officers, reducing the force to 3, 172. This would be a 31% reduction since 2010 when there were 4, 616 officers