Constabulary Name Change

The contents on this page should be taken out of a roleplay perspective to educate those interested on this subject and therefore, we will be speaking as a Roleplay Community rather than if in the context of a Constabulary.

It may be known to some that in real life, Hampshire Constabulary has been changed to Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary and thus some may be wondering why we have maintained the 'Hampshire Constabulary' name rather than switching to add 'Isle of Wight' to it. 

On the 7th April 2023, the Chief Constable proposed the change to include the Isle of Wight into the Constabulary's name, to the Senior Leadership Team. The proposal was rejected 0-5 in favour of and against the idea (not including the Chief Constable's vote) and therefore not taken forward to consultation with officers, staff and the public. The main reason was that the Hampshire roleplay community is based solely on the Hampshire County and not any other county in the United Kingdom, therefore it would not make sense to include the Isle of Wight to a police Force that currently, only policies Hampshire. 

Another reason for the rejection of the proposal was, whilst we want to maintain the fullest realistic and accurate experience as possible, we must also balance that with our legal obligations, primarily in copyright law and thus if we changed the name to Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary (HIOWC), it would mean changing our current logos on all of our documents and assets including social media sites to the HIOWC logo, causing a potential legal dispute between the HIOWC in real life and our Constabulary. 

Additionally, the new structure of HIOWC has not presented enough information on its departments and teams as well as it has many differences with the objectives in policing of the Force in real life as opposed to our objectives, which is why we have taken what information we can gather from the real life HIOWC as well as previous structures from the Force before it became HIOWC, to make it into our own police force, with additions of both the former Hampshire Constabulary and Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary hence why we have our own unique vision of Delivering Quality Policing, alongside adopting our national (within Hampshire) Newcomer and Rejoiner Entry Routes for all police officers and staff. 

One of our aims is to ensure there is a distinction between a ROBLOX Roleplay Community, and a real life emergency service so not only do we not appear to impersonate, but also not impede those needing assistance from the emergency services, which preserving the former Force name will ensure that is the case. 

In some cases, the Isle of Wight may be mentioned in relation to the Constabulary, but not in the same context as it would be if it was merged into Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary. 

Despite these reasons, there may appear to be two contradictions to what has been stated which is the fact that Hampshire's fire service (formerly Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service) and the collaborated Joint Operations Unit between Hampshire and Thames Valley Police. 

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service

Despite the statements above, the Fire Service did indeed mimic the real life merger of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, into Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service. However, this decision was made due to how the Fire Service is structured, as fire appliances and other vehicles are based across Hampshire & Isle of Wight and can provide mutual aid to different areas, regardless of where they are based, unlike the Constabulary. There still is still a risk of copyright however this will be the duty of the Senior Leadership Team in HIWFRS to resolve, if and when necessary. This also applies to other services which have been had HIW in the name (e.g the Air Ambulance Service). 

Joint Operations Unit

As mentioned in the Joint Operations Unit (JOU) page, JOU is a collaborated specialist unit between Hampshire Constabulary and Thames Valley Police. The reason we have maintained the JOU is due to how it is structured, similarly to the Fire Service. When the unit merged in 2012, the Forces still maintained their own departments, however when needed, they will provide them to the other Force. For example, Thames Valley Police is the only Force out of the two, to have a Mounted Section. And therefore, when needed, the Section will deploy to parts of Hampshire to provide assistance. Similarly, the Marine Support Unit could deploy to Thames Valley if it required the resource. Where necessary, departments have been merged or introduced to cater for the structure of Hampshire, such as Hampshire's public order unit, the Force Support Unit, being placed under the Public Order Department rather than disbanded, therefore reinforcing public order policing where and when necessary. Therefore, due to the need for the Joint Operations Unit, this has been retained and will continue to be so.