St Helens born officer preferred candidate for top job in Yorkshire

Tim Forber is currently the Deputy Chief Constable at South Yorkshire Police. He joined South Yorkshire Police as Assistant Chief Constable in December 2016 and was promoted to Deputy Chief Constable in June 2021.

Tim was born and raised in St Helens, and his parents still live in the town, his dad, Brian, who is now in his 80s, was a police officer himself after joining the St Helens Borough Police as a cadet aged 17.

Brian retired from Merseyside Police as an inspector in 2000, four years after Tim had become a PC.

Tim is reflecting on his dad’s past following his own announcement as the preferred candidate for the role in North Yorkshire.

Tim said: “I am hugely honoured to be selected as the preferred candidate to be the next Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police.

“I am looking forward to working tirelessly on behalf of the communities of York and North Yorkshire to ensure they have an outstanding police service.”

Talking previously on his policing roots, he said: “When my dad started policing in those days was very, very, different.

“There were no radios, so he had to keep in touch with the station by making fixed points on his beat and ringing in. He was paid weekly in cash at the end of the week.

“There were very few female officers, and there was a completely separate Police Women’s Department. He spent many years on nothing but foot patrol, but he was photographed here in 1966 driving one of the first ever ‘panda’ cars in St Helens.

Panda police Car in St Helens 1966 (Image: Tim Forber)

“In the late 1960’s policing was reorganised and St Helen’s Borough Police was amalgamated into Lancashire Constabulary and in 1974 became part of Merseyside Police. In the late 1960s he moved into Roads Policing, or the Traffic Department as it was then known.

“I arrived on the scene in June 1972. This was a photo of me aged 13 or 14 with him and my Mum on the day he got his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. He had not long been promoted at this time.

"Roll on to 1996 and I joined the Metropolitan Police in London where I spent my first nine and half years of service.

“My Dad is still going strong at 82 years old and enjoying retirement. Since leaving the police he worked as a Magistrate for a number of years, and he is a very active member of NARPO.

“Policing has changed a lot in the last 70 years: new technology and the internet changed everything, but some things are still the same and will never change.

“Policing needs people who have integrity, who care about protecting people, and want to do their best for the community. My dad and I are both very proud to have had the careers we have had.”