Assistant Chief Constable Rachel Shields

Rachel joined Avon and Somerset Police in September 2021 as a detective superintendent, following a long and fulfilling career at the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Rachel started her policing career with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in Northern Ireland in November 1999, with her first role as a response constable.

The RUC transitioned to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) two years later, and after three years into policing Rachel moved into detective roles, working her way through every rank as a detective within CID and other Investigative Departments, including dealing with organised crime, serious sexual offences, and specialist investigations (cyber and economic crime, modern slavery, and murder reviews).

After almost 22 years of service in Northern Ireland, Rachel made the move to Avon and Somerset Police in 2021, where she worked as a detective superintendent. Within six months, she was promoted to Head of Investigations (now known as CID) in February 2022, a role she held for two and a half years, before spending a short time as the force Delegated Safeguarding Partner working alongside other partners in Child Safeguarding.

Rachel then moved to complete an eight-month-long Executive Leadership programme to further challenge and test herself. Using this knowledge, she applied for the role of Assistant Chief Constable and was the successful candidate.

In her role as Assistant Chief Constable, Rachel leads the Operational Support directorates of the force, with units such as Mounted, Dogs, Firearms, Roads Policing and Dive coming under her areas of responsibility.  Operational support also includes Command and Control, Criminal Justice and Custody, Intelligence and Central Authorisation Bureau.

Rachel says:

“I believe in the importance of policing, especially during times of instability and fear in our communities. I believe in this organisation and the people in it and I want to make sure the decisions we take support officers and staff to do their job well and get the support needed.

“I want to instil hope, confidence, and trust. I will specifically seek to guide our efforts in improving our overall performance, be productive and impactful with the resources we have, support our anti-racism strategy and role model service leadership.”