Gloucestershire Constabulary appoints new Deputy Chief Constable

Gloucestershire Constabulary is pleased to welcome Shaun West to the role of Deputy Chief Constable.

His first working day is due to be Tuesday 30 August, when he will officially take over from former Deputy Chief Constable Jon Stratford.

Shaun previously worked across the five forces in the South West of England as the regional Assistant Chief Constable for the South West Police Collaboration, leading the fight against Serious and Organised Crime and terrorism, and supporting South West Forensics.

He started his career in policing as a Special Constable in 1994 and subsequently joined Lincolnshire Police in 1997, where he held a variety of roles including Temporary Assistant Chief Constable.

These roles included response officer, neighbourhood officer, intelligence officer and a variety of detective roles including Senior Investigating Officer.

Shaun's experience within civil contingencies contributed to his appointment to chairperson of the Covid19 National Foresight Group. This work resulted in Shaun leading four Interim Operational Reviews in support of Ministers across England and Wales.

He was also previously the chairperson of the Lincolnshire Local Resilience Forum, leading on all resilience and emergency preparedness for response and recovery across the county.

Shaun is also a Specialist Strategic Firearms Commander, Gold Public Order Commander, Strategic Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear defence Commander and Multi-Agency Gold Incident Commander.

This leadership saw Shaun work in a number of commands such as protest, public safety events, firearms incidents, murder investigations, tidal surge/ flooding and working on a Rule of Law mission in Kosovo.

Shaun graduated from Nottingham Trent University with an LLB (Hons) in Law in 1994 and returned in 2022 to be awarded an honorary Doctorate of Law.

Chief Constable Rod Hansen said: "I am delighted to welcome Shaun into our Constabulary and look forward to us and our communities benefitting from his wealth of experience and knowledge.

"It was a tough selection process that was hotly contested so Shaun has earned his place.

"Shaun has worked across nine police force areas, four in the East Midlands and five in the South West, leading public service for the Regional and Organised Crime Unit, Counter Terrorism Policing and Specialist Operations, in support of local communities.

"He is passionate about youth engagement, previously holding the National Police Chiefs’ Council portfolio for Mini Police, and I am hopeful these skills can be emulated by our officers and staff.”

Shaun added: “I am thrilled to be appointed as Deputy Chief Constable here in Gloucestershire. I have really enjoyed working across the five forces in the South West region in my previous role and the opportunity to focus my leadership in Gloucestershire is a fantastic one.

"I have met many of our police officers, police staff and volunteers and know how committed they are to the communities of Gloucestershire.

"I look forward to supporting Police and Crime Commissioner Chris Nelson, Chief Constable Rod Hansen and our partners in our shared ambitions."