Chief officers

Chief Constable Rachel Swann has been a police officer for more than 28 years, joining Leicestershire Police after she graduated from Loughborough University, with both an honours and a masters degree.

She has a young daughter.

Rachel has worked in a variety of roles across policing and has held several key leadership positions, initially in Leicestershire Police where she served for 21 years.  

In March 2015, Rachel completed the Strategic Command Course before moving to Northamptonshire Police as Assistant Chief Constable. Here she operated as a single ACC responsible for all operational portfolios, including Local Policing and Operations, Crime and Intelligence, and Criminal Justice. Rachel became Deputy Chief Constable for Northamptonshire Police in 2017, focusing on service and performance improvement before moving to Derbyshire Constabulary as Deputy Chief Constable in 2019.

Rachel was appointed as Chief Constable for Derbyshire Constabulary in August 2020, the first female to hold this position. She has a stated intent of focusing upon delivering a consistently good service to the public – fighting crime, proactively bringing offenders to justice, and protecting the most vulnerable from harm.

Nationally, Rachel is the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) Vice-Chair, along with Chair of the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Co-ordination Committee and NPCC lead for Fingerprints and Footwear.

Rachel is an experienced commander, and most notably led the multi-agency response to the Toddbrook reservoir collapse at Whaley Bridge in 2019. On 1 August 2019, she was responsible for commanding the safe evacuation of 1,600 people, alongside preventing the destruction of 600 properties in the Derbyshire town of Whaley Bridge. This included protecting against the inundation of major road and railway infrastructure by 1.3 million tonnes of water after the dam at Toddbrook Reservoir began to collapse. Under the scrutiny of worldwide media, Rachel went on to facilitate the largest peace-time evacuation of civilians in the United Kingdom, averting a disaster almost beyond imagination. She was awarded a Queen’s Police Medal in 2022 for her leadership of these events.   

Deputy Chief Constable - Kate Meynell

Photo and bio to follow.

James joined Derbyshire Constabulary in September 2022 on secondment and temporary promotion from South Yorkshire Police as the Assistant Chief Constable responsible for Crime and Criminal Justice. Having joined the police service in January 1996, he has worked as a detective at every rank, performing a number of roles within CID, major crime, intelligence, serious and organised crime and covert policing.  

James was promoted to Detective Chief Superintendent as Head of Crime in 2016, which followed a period of temporary promotion as the District Commander for the city of Sheffield. Prior to joining Derbyshire, James was the District Commander for Barnsley. For several years, James also chaired the Yorkshire and Humber Threat Reduction Group for Modern Slavery, Human Trafficking and Organised Immigration Crime.

He is an experienced Gold Commander, Strategic Firearms Commander and PIP 4 Strategic Investigator. As a Detective Superintendent, James worked as a PIP 3 Senior Investigating Officer with the Major Incident Teams, led specialist crime operations as the Director of Intelligence and Crime Operations, and worked locally with partner agencies as the Operations Superintendent at Sheffield West. He holds a MSc in Police Science and Management and a BSc (Hons) Business Studies.

Simon Allsop took on the role of Joint Director of Finance and Business Services (Section 151) for Derbyshire Constabulary and Fire permanently in July 2019 having undertaken the joint role temporarily from October 2018. His role for police covers:

• Finance and Business Support (including evidence management)
• Property
• Procurement
• Risk Management
• Transport

Simon and his family have always lived in Derbyshire. Simon studied Commerce at the University of Birmingham and began his career in the private sector as a trainee accountant in 1994, qualifying as a CIPFA Accountant. He spent over 15 years working as an auditor and advisor with a range of public sector organisations predominantly in Derbyshire including Police, Probation, Fire and local authorities before becoming a Senior Manager at KPMG. He had secondments at the Home Office as part of the team considering police merger proposals, Birmingham City Council, Peabody Housing Association and Derbyshire Fire before taking on the role of Director of Finance at Fire in October 2011. He is the regional finance lead for the NPCC, a member of the NPCC finance coordination committee and in his spare time, a keen Derby County supporter and girls football team manager.

During his time at Derbyshire he has worked to bring the Police and Fire property teams together, align contracts and share resources where we can, as well as bringing forward improvements in the Estate, fleet and equipment, working with teams to help them make the best use of their finance and resources. The Force continues to secure funding to address significant investments required to enable officers and staff to do their job to the best of their ability. Simon is committed to ensuring he can do his bit to ensure the Force works collaboratively and can protect the communities it serves, particularly those who are most vulnerable.

Chief Superintendent Dave Kirby

Chief Superintendent David Cox