The Policing Protocol Order 2011
Section 79 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 requires the Secretary of State to issue a Policing Protocol, namely a document setting out, or otherwise making provision about, the ways in which relevant persons should exercise or refrain from exercising functions so as to encourage, maintain or improve working relationships or limit or prevent the overlapping or conflicting exercise of functions. “Relevant persons” for these purposes are the Secretary of State (in the exercise of her policing functions), elected local policing bodies (namely police and crime commissioners and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime), chief officers of police forces maintained by elected local policing bodies, and police and crime panels. These persons must have regard to the Policing Protocol in exercising their functions.