Chief officers and support staff

Mark began his police career in 1993 joining Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and was initially posted to Salford.

Throughout his career, he has performed both investigative and uniform roles at each rank, up to Superintendent, including leading a syndicate on the GMP Major Investigation Team and as Head of Investigations at the North West Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) during which time he was awarded three commendations from the Director of the FBI. He was part of the review team looking at the serial killer Harold Shipman, a hostage negotiator and received a Chief Constable’s commendation for his role as a test purchaser tackling drug dealing in Moss Side. Whilst in the CTU, Mark completed the prestigious international Leadership in Counter Terrorism programme.

Mark worked across Greater Manchester, in Salford, Trafford, South Manchester and the city centre, his last posting being as the Trafford BCU Commander between 2009- 2014, where he was responsible for policing Old Trafford, including numerous high profile matches and the Olympic football games held there. During this time Trafford had the lowest levels of crime in Greater Manchester.

A key achievement for Mark while at GMP was his collaboration with Trafford Local Authority, which led to significant reductions in crime and anti-social behaviour, and innovative ways of tackling organised crime. This problem solving approach was recognised at the prestigious “Goldstein Awards”.

Mark is a public order and firearms strategic commander and was in charge of the tactical response to the 2011 riots in Manchester and Salford, for which he was Silver Commander and was regularly deployed as the Head of Delegation when England played abroad.

Mark moved to Cheshire Constabulary in 2014 as Assistant Chief Constable for Local Policing. During this time, he led on the restructure of neighbourhood policing which coincided with a twenty-five year low in recorded crime and an approach judged “outstanding” by HMIC.

In this role, Mark was the North West lead on public order and became the National Lead for football policing, a position he retains to this day.

Mark joined South Yorkshire Police (SYP) in 2017 and is now also the NPCC lead for Covert Legislation and Guidance. He was responsible for the UK’s policing support to EURO 2016 in France and the World Cup in Russia, complicated by events in Salisbury. He recently completed an independent review into football policing on behalf of Police Scotland.

In South Yorkshire, Mark was responsible for force performance, discipline and complaints, legal services and corporate communications. During that time, SYP has been the most improved force in the country for three consecutive years and is now amongst the very top tier of high performing forces. HMICFRS now assess the force as ‘Good’ across every measure in the annual PEEL assessment and it is the only force in the country to be assessed as ‘Outstanding’ in respect of ethical and lawful leadership.

Marks tenure as Chief Constable of Cheshire Constabulary commenced on 24th April 2021.

Chris joined Cheshire Constabulary as Deputy Chief Constable in September 2021 having previously been DCC at the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC).

He was brought up in Cheshire so was delighted to now have the opportunity to work in a county where he has so many connections and memories.

His career started when he joined the British Army in 1981 and served with the Royal Engineers for eight years before joining Merseyside Police in 1989, where he went on to perform a variety of roles for the next 26 years.

Chris performed the role of BCU Commander at both St Helens and Toxteth, before being appointed to Assistant Chief Constable at Merseyside Police in 2011.

In 2014 he was seconded to Gwent Police for six months for the role of Police Gold Commander for the NATO Summit Wales, ultimately commanding an operation involving more than 10,000 officers and staff

Chris has also been the NPCC Lead for the both the Protest and Sex Work Portfolios and was extremely proud to be awarded the Queen's Police Medal for distinguished service in 2015.

In 2019 he was appointed DCC for the CNC. He commanded 1,250 authorised firearms officers across the UK and was also deployed as the Gold Commander for escort operations of nuclear material domestically and internationally.

Chris has commanded armed UK police assets in America, France, Germany and Japan and was awarded an OBE for services to UK Nuclear Security in 2020.

In recent years most of ACC Dutton's service has been in local policing, as both a Superintendent and latterly a Chief Superintendent.

He also had 15-month spells as an Authorising Officer and as the head of Strategic Change.

ACC Dutton joined the Constabulary in March 2015, having previously served with Durham Constabulary since November 1999.

T/ACC Evans was born and raised in Liverpool, joining Cheshire Constabulary in 2006 as a police constable.

He has served as a detective at every rank and brings a wealth of experience having trained as a specialist in kidnap and in leading complex and challenging investigations. He has spent 10 years as a Hostage/Crisis negotiator and is an accredited Strategic Firearms Commander.

Leon started his career as a Special Constable in Greater Manchester Police (GMP) back in July 2011, climbing the ladder to a Special Sergeant in Manchester City Centre. He was responsible for City Centre Night Time Economy and City Centre Operations, having co-ordinated and policed many large scale events including stadium and arena concerts, large charity runs, visits by royal family, political party visits and protests, this became his policing passion. Leon was also awarded ‘Special of the Year’ in 2012 which was certainly a highlight of his career.

In July 2018 he transferred to Cheshire Police to take on a new challenge, he started at Warrington Local Policing Unit (LPU) and then moved onto our Roads Crime Unit. After around 9 months he transferred back to Local Policing becoming Special Inspector for Warrington, which was a challenging but enjoyable time in his career, transforming one of the busiest LPU’s in the force. In 2021, Leon was successful at securing the rank of Special Chief Inspector for our Northern Borough Command looking after Warrington, Widnes and Runcorn Local Policing Teams responsible for over 50 operational volunteer Police Officers up to the rank of Inspector and in 2022 he rather quickly became Special Superintendent responsible for Operational Policing across the force, responsible for the command of our Local Policing and Uniformed Operations volunteer Police Officers.

In April 2023 Leon sat his promotional board and secured the role of Chief Officer, this is the highest rank in the Special Constabulary and became one of the Chief Officers in the force. The Chief Officer of the Special Constabulary is a unique and prestigious role creating, delivering and leading the strategy for our volunteer Police Officers here in Cheshire. Leon’s role is still completely voluntary which is a fantastic commitment and he does this on top of his employed position as a Partner for Davies Consulting and leads their global People and Organisational Performance Consultancy, which certainly brings a lot of transferable skills to Cheshire Police, one of the fantastic benefits of the Special Constabulary.

The Chief People Officer is responsible for developing and implementing a three year People Strategy that supports the delivery of the Constabulary strategic objectives and ensures the Constabulary has an inclusive and high performing workforce.

Responsible for:

• External communications, including media relations and reputation management
• Campaign development and delivery
• Digital communications, including the force website and social media channels
• Internal communications
• Force community engagement activity

Head of legal and commercial services department providing services to Constabulary and Police and Crime Commissioner

Role covers acting as deputy S.151 officer, provision of financial advice, preparation of the medium term financial strategy and annual budget through to production of the annual statement of accounts, together with ensuring the Constabulary uses their resources efficiently, effectively and economically whilst acting in accordance with Financial Regulations and legislation.

Head of Planning and Performance - Paul Woods

Head of IT and Information Security - Stuart Rogers