Norman Bettison

On 28 June 2017, he was charged with offences related to alleged lies in the aftermath. The case was dropped on 21 August 2018.

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

On 3 July 2013 Bettison was referred to the IPCC by West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson in relation to alleged misconduct during the Macpherson Inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, a black South London teenager who had been fatally stabbed in a racist attack 20 years earlier. Three documents were found, about which Burns-Williamson said:

Liverpool John Moores University came under pressure to rescind Bettison's fellowship, following the publication of the report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel. The University responded that the requests were being treated with the 'utmost seriousness' but that it would be 'prejudicial' to IPCC investigation to make a decision before the outcome of that investigation was known. On 9 April 2013, LJMU announced they were withdrawing the honorary fellowship granted to Bettison. He was awarded the Honorary degree of Doctor of the University by the University of Huddersfield in 2012.

On 12 September 2012 Bettison's role in the Hillsborough disaster was revealed by the Hillsborough Independent Panel report. Families of the victims demanded Bettison's resignation.

On 13 September 2012 former Home Secretary Jack Straw said in a radio interview that Bettison was "bound to be considering his position". He added that in his experience Bettison was a fine police officer . Later that same day, Bettison was referred to the West Yorkshire Police Authority, over his role and post-disaster conduct at the Hillsborough disaster. He was quoted as saying "I really welcome the disclosure of all facts that can be known about the Hillsborough tragedy because I have absolutely nothing to hide."

At the start of October 2012 he announced that he was to retire in March 2013, ending 38 years of service to the police. On 23 October 2012, Bettison resigned with immediate effect as Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, after Maria Eagle MP on the floor of the House and thus protected by Parliamentary privilege, accused him of boasting about the Hillsborough cover-up operation involving concocting a story that all the Liverpool fans were drunk and that police were afraid that they were going to break down the gates and so decided to open them. Bettison denied the claim, and more general allegations about his conduct, saying "there is nothing I'm ashamed of". Merseyside Police Authority confirmed that he would receive an £83,000 pension, unless convicted of a criminal offence in relation to Hillsborough. Hillsborough families called for the payments to be frozen during the IPCC investigation.

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.

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. 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.

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."

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.

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.

Bettison was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University in 2004. In the Millennium New Year's Honours list, he was awarded the Queen's Police Medal, and was knighted in 2006.

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. 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

On 12 July 1990, Bettison prepared and submitted a document for the Hillsborough contribution hearings, the civil court case through which the police sought to recover damages from other parties with liability such as the football club and stadium engineers. In this document, Bettison wrote:

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".

On 15 April 1989, as an off-duty police Chief Inspector/private citizen Bettison, attended the semi-final FA Cup football match tie between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield. At 15:06 the Hillsborough disaster unfolded, which resulted in 96 Liverpool fans being fatally crushed (although two of them died at later dates), and remains the deadliest stadium-related disaster in British history and one of the world's worst ever football disasters. Bettison subsequently left his seat and joined in the South Yorkshire Police efforts to control the unfolding disaster. He claims to have attended a number of casualties, and set up a rendezvous centre for relatives at a local boys' club.

Internal documents later released by South Yorkshire Police to the Hillsborough Independent Panel included the minutes of a meeting held on 17 April 1989 with senior members of South Yorkshire Police. It is not clear whether Bettison was in attendance. In the meeting, the then Chief Constable is documented to have stated:

"The fullest information on the closure of the central tunnel at the 1988 Semi-Final ... it was an informal initiative at junior level not reported to command level"

This conclusion was also drawn by the Coroner who directed the inquest jury that the senior officers had not been aware of diversions from the tunnel by police officers in 1988.

Bettison is also to be investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission over allegations that he was involved in the theft of a substantial quantity of precious metal on 11 August 1987.

Bettison began his police career in 1975 when, at the age of 19, he joined South Yorkshire Police as a Constable. 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. In May 1993 he was appointed Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, where his portfolios included Management & Information Support, Personnel, and Operations Support.

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

Sir Norman George Bettison, QPM (born 3 January 1956) is a British former police officer and the former Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police. 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. 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. Bettison's own book Hillsborough Untold (2016) contains his version of events.

Bettison was born in Rotherham, West Riding of Yorkshire, on 3 January 1956, the son of George Bettison, a steelworker, and Betty Heathcote. He married Patricia Favell in Rotherham in 1976.