Norman Bettison

Sir Norman George Bettison, QPM (born 3 January 1956) is a British former police officer and the former Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police.

Bettison was born in Rotherham, West Riding of Yorkshire, on 3 January 1956, the son of George Bettison, a steelworker, and Betty Heathcote.

He described his experience as a 14-year-old boy watching Sheffield Wednesday vs. Manchester City on 22 April 1970 from the Leppings Lane terraces at Hillsborough stadium:

"... the terraces had become so full ... there was no room to move ... I remember, at one time, being squashed against a barrier to such an extent that I was exerting all my energies to prevent injury ... I dreaded any goals or near misses as this was followed by a surge of people which caused me to be squashed painfully against the barrier. After fighting my way through a crowd I found a more comfortable position. I had been in very large football grounds before and since but had never experienced anything quite like the pressure that was created in this crowd at Hillsborough."

Bettison began his police career in 1975 when, at the age of 19, he joined South Yorkshire Police as a Constable.

He married Patricia Favell in Rotherham in 1976.

Bettison said that he attended football matches as a spectator from time to time, following Sheffield Wednesday.

The experience led him to state in 1989 that "I wonder, now, whether the Leppings Lane terraces at Hillsborough is somehow susceptible to retaining the pressure created in crowd build up".

Bettison attended South Grove Comprehensive School before leaving at the age of 16 to join South Yorkshire Police as a cadet.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in philosophy and psychology from the University of Oxford, which was later upgraded to a Master of Arts (MA) – an automatic process which requires no further study or examination – and gained a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in business administration and media studies from Sheffield Hallam University.

– the former Sheffield Polytechnic.

He is also a graduate of the FBI Executive Programme

He served through its ranks, acting as a Superintendent in the Traffic Division from October 1989 to January 1991, whilst simultaneously working in the Hillsborough disaster liaison unit; as Superintendent in the Divisional Commander's office from January 1991 to April 1992; and as Chief Superintendent in the Corporate Development unit from April 1992 to May 1993.

A member of Merseyside Police Authority, Councillor Steve Foulkes, said the appointment had caused outrage among the families of the victims of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, because Bettison had been involved in the investigation, which had been controversial.

Bettison offered to meet the families to defuse the controversy.

As Chief Constable of Merseyside he was a pioneer of Neighbourhood Policing: a policing style which provides dedicated teams of police officers and community support officers (CSO) who work with the community and partners at a local level

In May 1993 he was appointed Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, where his portfolios included Management & Information Support, Personnel, and Operations Support.

He left West Yorkshire in 1998 to become Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, covering the area where most of the Hillsborough victims had lived and still had relatives living.

He retired from the police in January 2005 to become Chief Executive of Centrex, which provided training and development to police forces in the UK and enforcement agencies throughout the world until it was abolished in March 2007.

He rejoined the police service in January 2007 as Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police.

He attempted to secure a package to receive both a retirement pension from Merseyside and a salary from the new post; he threatened legal action but the claim was settled out of court.

Shortly after taking office as Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, Sir Norman ordered a review of shifts worked by officers claiming they did not provide the best service to the public as they included four rest days when officers were not at work.

A new shift pattern consisting of two distinct patterns referred to as VSA 1 and VSA 2 (variable shift arrangement) was produced and commenced in March 2008.

Response officers worked VSA 1 and neighbourhood policing teams worked VSA 2.

The VSA 2 still included four rest days for officers.

Officers posted to Communications Division were allowed to continue working the more popular previous shift pattern, FSDR (Force Standard Duty Rosta) as Communications Division had been able to successfully argue that VSA was not fit for purpose for their requirements.

The VSA 1 proved deeply unpopular with many officers claiming that they were more tired than they had been working the previous shift pattern.

A report leaked from the Police Federation to local media suggested that there had been an increase of 16,000 hours of sickness between April and August 2008, a 3.4% increase on the previous year.

In October 2008, Bettison was touted as a possible replacement for Sir Ian Blair as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, but ruled himself out of consideration citing the politicisation of the role and the way Blair was removed.

He warned of "dangerous consequences" if the independence of chief constables were lost, saying "I am not prepared to set aside my professional judgement and integrity, forged over 36 years, in order to meet short-term political expediency" and warning of "the ambition which seems to be shared by all three major political parties at the moment... to make the police service more accountable to elected representatives. What that means is bringing the police service under greater political control."

After pressure by the police federation a further review was taken and VSA 1 was re-designed and commenced in April 2009.

Many officers remain unconvinced as to the need to deviate from the FSDR shift pattern which had allowed West Yorkshire Police to achieve 'very significant performance gains' and be regarded as one of the most improved forces.

On 12 April 2010 Bettison wrote an article in The Times saying "I'm not worth £213,000"; his annual cost to the tax payer when pensions and benefits are considered.

He criticized the notion, in the National Health Service and other government bureaus, that public sector organisations had to offer wages for senior managers comparable to those for private industry, or that businesspeople should be brought in to conduct strategic reviews of public agencies.

Instead, he wrote, "People join, and remain in, the public sector because of a sense of vocation — to make a difference to society or to the quality of people’s lives. The best leaders are those who can secure long-term public value and a vision for their staff. Not some mercenary performance manager peddling a short-term fix."

Thus he suggested freezing public sector pay, without exceptions, beginning with the highest wage earners, which he felt in combination with a 50p in the pound increase in taxes for higher earners and the removal of all tax allowances would sustain public services.

He resigned in October 2012 amidst controversy about his role in the Hillsborough disaster, in which he was involved in the implementation of a cover-up of police errors.

Bettison's own book Hillsborough Untold (2016) contains his version of events.

He remained the subject of an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation, and was charged on the 28 June 2017 with four counts of misconduct in public office.

The case was dropped on 21 August 2018.