Rod Hansen moved up to the rank of Assistant Chief Constable in February 2005 after a long career in Avon and Somerset Constabulary. He joined the force in September 1988, beginning his policing experience in the market town of Chipping Sodbury.

He was promoted to sergeant in the city of Bath in June 1994 and soon after started on the Accelerated Promotion Scheme. After a period of time as Detective Sergeant, Rod was promoted to patrol inspector in Central Bristol.

Other postings led to Rod working on the force surveillance team and reviewing the child protection team portfolio before returning to Bath and North East Somerset as Detective Chief Inspector in May 1998.

He has worked on a number of major incidents and investigated deaths in police custody at Hammersmith, London and Newquay, Cornwall.

In April 2000 Rod hosted an international seminar, funded by the European Union, aimed at improving co-operation for dealing with serious cross-border crime.

Two years later Rod was promoted to District Commander for Bath and North East Somerset, during which time he led a public contact project seeking to improve the quality of service that members of the public receive.

Rod has been a hostage negotiator since 1998 and for a number of years was the South West Regional Co-ordinator for negotiating. He was course director for a regional negotiators course and in October 2003 trained negotiators within the Greek police service in preparation for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Rod's initial work as an ACC covered the Operations Department, Communications Department, Corporate Information Management and Professional Standards. He was the chair of the Local Resilience Forum, Safety Camera Partnership, ANPR Project Board and also the national ACPO liaison officer to the Chief Fire Officers Association.

He chaired the programme board overseeing the introduction of the Force Service Centre that commenced operations at the end of 2005.

In October 2006, Rod was appointed as the senior responsible officer for negotiating a strategic partnership with Somerset County Council, Taunton Deane Borough Council and IBM. This involved setting up a Joint Venture Company to deliver a range of services including finance, administration, enquiry offices and IT to each of the public sector organisations. This venture is the first of its kind in the UK involving a police force. A new company called Southwest One was established to deliver these services and helped to transform many aspects of the organisation. The company started operating within the Constabulary in June 2008.

In July 2008 Rod moved across to Territorial Operations and had specific responsibility for the high quality delivery of services across five command areas - South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset, Somerset East and Somerset West. Rod also had responsibility for Transport Services.

In September 2010 a further restructure took place which saw Rod taking responsibility for the Operations and Criminal Investigation Departments as well as the Intelligence Directorate. He is the lead officer for counter terrorism in the South West region and is the lead officer for Operation Zephyr which tackles organised crime across the region. Rod is the responsible officer for regional projects focussing on Harmonised Firearms Training Services and Firearms and Armoury Management Systems. He also sits on the Board of Trustees for Avon Outward Bound, is the Chair of the Wheels Project charity and is a trustee of the Crime Stoppers charity.

ACC Rod Hansen's Portfolio - Protective Services

Operations Department

• Support Group
• Mounted and Dog Section
• Air Support Unit
• Operational Planning
• Road Policing Unit
• Tactical Firearms Teams
• Tactical Crime Unit
• Intelligence Unit
• Collision Investigation Unit
• Traffic Management Unit
• Regional and Local Resilience Forums

Crime Investigation Department

• Major Crime
• Public Protection
• Op Zephyr
• Volume Crime
• Drugs (including DIP)
• Bristol International Airport
• CTIU/SB
• Scientific Investigation

Intelligence Directorate