West Yorkshire police forces's crime rates and the biggest issues they are currently facing

West Yorkshire Police force is the the fourth biggest police force in the country, West Yorkshire Police serves a population of nearly 1.9m people – more than any other force in Yorkshire.

It is one of the many constabularies in the country known as a "metropolitan police force", meaning it serves a largely urban area, and last year recorded more than 288,000 crimes, including 26 homicides.

The force employs more than 9,800 people and is currently headed by Chief Constable John Robins QPM.

West Yorkshire Police's area is divided into five districts, namely Leeds, Bradford, Kirklees, Wakefield and Calderdale, all of which are mainly urban areas.

The crime rate in West Yorkshire was last year revealed to be the highest in the country when measured by the number of recorded offences per 100,000 people, however, the force has recently been commended for its "outstanding" crime recording methods which may in part explain why so many incidents were recorded last year.

Big issues which the force face are violence and drugs-related crime, and it currently runs Operation Jemlock where officers execute raids and searches for weapons and drugs.

Last year, West Yorkshire was one of several forces in England and Wales cherry-picked by the Home Office for a multi-million pound funding package to tackle violence in the form of violence reduction units (VRUs) – where experts partner with local authorities, health bodies and community organisations to look at the long-term causes and effects of violence