Sara Thornton (police officer)
Sara Thornton | |
|---|---|
| Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner | |
| In office May 2019 – April 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Kevin Hyland |
| Chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council | |
| In office April 2015 – May 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Sir Hugh Orde (as Chair of the ACPO) |
| Succeeded by | Martin Hewitt, QPM |
| Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police | |
| In office 2007–2015 | |
| Preceded by | Peter Neyroud |
| Succeeded by | Francis Habgood |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 27 December 1962 Poole, Dorset, England |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Alma mater | Durham University Wolfson College, Cambridge |
| Awards | Queen's Police Medal (2006) Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2011) Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2019) |
Dame Sara Joanne Thornton, DBE, QPM (born 27 December 1962) was the UK's Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner from May 2019 until April 2022. She was appointed by the Home Secretary at the time, Sajid Javid, in succession to Kevin Hyland who left the post in May 2018.
She is a retired British police officer who was the first Chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and the former Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police and Vice-President of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). She was the second consecutive head of the Thames Valley Police to move onto leadership of a national policing body; at Thames Valley she replaced former Chief Constable Peter Neyroud who, in January 2007, moved to the role of Chief executive of the National Policing Improvement Agency. As of 2022, she is Professor of Practice in modern slavery policy at the University of Nottingham's Rights Lab.