Sara Thornton

Biography:

Chief Constable Sara Thornton was elected Vice President of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in 2011, and she has been a Vice Chair of ACPO Terrorism and Allied Matters since 2010. Ms. Thornton has been the ACPO lead for Authorised Professional Practice since 2011. In 2010 she was appointed the Director of the Police National Assessment Centre. Between 2003 and 2007 she was Chair of ACPO Intelligence Portfolio and was responsible for the first two National Strategic Assessments in 2004.

Sara Thornton served with the Metropolitan Police from 1986 and over the next 15 years her career alternated between operational postings in West London and strategic roles within New Scotland Yard. She joined Thames Valley Police as Assistant Chief Constable Specialist Operations in November 2000 and in August 2003 was appointed Deputy Chief Constable. In January 2006, she was appointed Acting Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police.

In 2006, Sara was awarded the Queens Police Medal and in the 2011 New Years Honours she was awarded a CBE. She is also a member of the Royal College of Defence Studies, a member of the Advisory Board for the Oxford University Centre for Criminology and an active alumnus of the Windsor Leadership Trust. In July 2011, she was awarded a Master of Studies degree (MSt) in Applied Criminology and Police Management from Cambridge University. She also holds honorary doctorates from Oxford Brookes University and Buckinghamshire New University.