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Chief Constable Sara Thornton

[image: Chief Constable Sara Thornton]Ms Sara Thornton QPM (Queen's Police Medal) - Chief Constable

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In April 2007 Sara Thornton was appointed Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, the largest non-Metropolitan force in England and Wales.

Sara is a Vice Chair of the Association of Chief Police Officers’ (ACPO) Terrorism and Allied Matters.  In 2010 she was appointed the Director of the Police National Assessment Centre. Between 2003 – 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 fifteen 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 she was awarded the Queens Police Medal. 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.  

She lives in Oxford and has two sons aged 21 and 12.