Senior Officers
Chief Constable Gillian Parker, QPM, BSc.(Hons), MSt.(Cantab)
Gillian Parker took over as the Chief Constable of Bedfordshire on the 4th July 2005.
Before joining the Police Service, Gillian studied at Loughborough University of Technology between 1973 and 1977, where she gained an Honours Degree in chemical engineering and a Diploma in Industrial Studies.
Gillian joined Leicestershire Constabulary in 1980 as a Constable working in the Coalville Sub-Division. She served with Leicestershire for 18 years in a variety of roles to the rank of Superintendent. Gillian has been involved with child protection issues as an investigator and also in developing policy. She was also responsible for developing policies in relation to both domestic violence and youth offending. Whilst serving as Staff Officer to the Chief Constable Gillian participated in national work around performance management and quality of service issues. In 1991 Gillian was part of a team responsible for reviewing policing arrangements in Jamaica. As a Superintendent she worked as a BCU Commander, Head of Community Affairs and Head of Corporate Development. In July 1999 she gained a Master's Degree in Applied Criminology with the University of Cambridge.
In November 1998 Gillian transferred to Suffolk Constabulary on promotion to Assistant Chief Constable and in 2000 achieved the rank of Deputy Chief Constable. Whilst with Suffolk she served on the ACPO TAM and Roads Policing Committees and held the Inspection portfolio under the Performance Management Business Area. Gillian was awarded the Queens Police Medal in 2003.
List of Offices Held
Bedfordshire Police Roles
- Force Executive - Chair
- Strategy Board - Chair
- Business Change Sponsoring Group - Chair
- Equality and Diversity Programme Board - Chair
- Consultation Forum - Chair
- Bedfordshire Police Partnership Trust - Chair
- Bedfordshire Police Welfare Committee - Chair
Local Partnerships
- Bedfordshire Criminal Justice Board - Chair
- Countywide Partnership - Member
- Central Bedfordshire Implementation Team - Member
Regional/National Roles
- Chief Constables' Council - member (See ACPO website)
- National Police Improvement Board - ACPO representative
Chief Constable Expenses
Deputy Chief Constable Martin Stuart MSt (Cantab.) PG Dip. App. Crim
Martin Stuart originates from Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire. Following comprehensive school education, Martin joined the Derbyshire Constabulary as a Cadet in 1978.
He joined the regular force in Derbyshire in October 1980, serving in foot, mobile and detective roles in the Derbyshire Dales district. He specialised in company fraud investigations before his promotion to Sergeant in 1989. Since this first promotion Martin progressed to the rank of Chief Inspector in Derbyshire before transferring to Superintendent in Bedfordshire in July 1997. Upon transfer Martin took command of the Community Action Department. During this posting he was seconded to Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary as part of a team inspecting the Metropolitan Police Service arising from the publication of the Macpherson Report into the death of Stephen Lawrence.
Since joining Bedfordshire Martin has also worked as Operations Commander at Luton and Divisional Commander for the then Central Bedfordshire area. He has undertaken comparative policing studies in both Brazil and Rwanda. Martin was appointed Assistant Chief Constable in December 2001 and Deputy Chief Constable in September 2004. He has held all ACPO Portfolios (Corporate Support, Operations and Protective Services) and now leads on collaboration work with Hertfordshire Constabulary and other forces in the Eastern Region, Performance Management and the Inspectorate function.
Martin lives in Bedfordshire and is married with three grown-up children. His hobbies include hill walking in both Derbyshire and the Lake District, golf and travel.
Deputy Chief Constable Expenses
Assistant Chief Constable (Territorial Policing) Katherine Govier
Katherine joined Bedfordshire Police as Assistant Chief Constable for Territorial Policing on 21st May 2007. She began her career with Thames Valley Police in 1982 at Reading, as a graduate entrant, having read Geography at Liverpool University.
During her career with Thames Valley Police, Katherine held a variety of uniform posts including two periods as BCU Commander, at High Wycombe and Southern Oxfordshire. Katherine also led three departments - Head of Territorial Policing, Head of Corporate Development, and Head of Personnel. In 1996 she was selected to represent the force at the annual Problem Oriented Policing Conference held in San Diego, California.
During 2005 and 2006 Katherine undertook two periods of Acting Assistant Chief Constable, Local Policing (Territorial Policing), within Thames Valley Police.
Between 1996 and 2004 she held the positions of Treasurer and Chair of the Thames Valley Branch of the Superintendents' Association, taking an active role nationally within diversity and contributing at annual conference.
Katherine is married and has two daughters. In her leisure time she enjoys family activities and horse riding.
Assistant Chief Constable (Territorial Policing) Expenses
Assistant Chief Constable (Protective Services) John Fletcher 
John Fletcher, 43, joined Bedfordshire Police on the 23rd June 2008 having previously been a Chief Superintendent of Suffolk Constabulary. John joined Suffolk Constabulary in 1984 and has served in a variety of roles in the west of the county, at Ipswich and also at Force Headquarters. In 1999, he gained an Honours Degree in Policing and Police Studies.
The majority of his service to date has been operational and prior to joining Bedfordshire was the BCU Commander for the Southern Area of Suffolk which included the county town of Ipswich, and also undertook a period of temporary Assistant Chief Constable.
During his time at Ipswich John was involved in the Force response to the high profile investigation into the murder of five women in the Ipswich area. In addition he was a lead member of a 'proof of concept' project with the Home Office that has lead to the national roll out of Operation Quest which aims to improve productivity at the front line of policing.
He is married with two daughters and his spare time is used for fitness training and gardening. He also has a passion for the fells of the Lake District.
Assistant Chief Constable (Protective Services) Expenses
Director Of Corporate Services Vince Hislop, PGDip PM, Chartered FCIPD
Born in Bedford in 1967, Vince obtained a Diploma in Personnel Management and a professional qualification in 1988 before joining Bedfordshire County Council as a personnel management trainee.
He held various HR positions - including a number in senior management - before taking up the post of General Manager (Commercial Services) in 1996, responsible for those high-public-interest services, including school meals and highway maintenance.
Vince was appointed Head of Human Resource Services in 1999 and was outsourced to HBS, the Council's strategic partner, in 2001. He took on several different HR jobs whilst employed by HBS, where he stayed until joining Bedfordshire Police as Director of Human Resources in February 2005. On 1st April 2007 he was appointed Director of Corporate Services.
Vince has three sons and lives locally with his wife, stepdaughter and baby daughter. His interests include military history and medals and militaria. He held a commission in the Training Branch of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and his last posting was as Officer Commanding 134 (Flitwick) DF ATC.
Director of Corporate Services Expenses
Luton Divisional Commander Mike Colbourne
Mike joined Northamptonshire Police in 1993 having completed his studies in Geography, Geology and Education at Keele University and a short service commission in the British Army. His first few years of policing were at Wellingborough, in uniform and as a Detective Constable. He moved to Northampton Division in 1997 on promotion to Sergeant, undertaking response, community and proactive policing roles prior to undertaking a secondment with the East Midlands Development Agency in Nottingham.
In 2000 he was promoted to Inspector and experienced duties in the Force Control room, in support of a major force communications and command and control project and then as the Sector Inspector responsible for the delivery of community, response and volume crime investigations in the Northampton Town Centre. In 2002 he was promoted to Chief Inspector and returned to Wellingborough Police Station as the Eastern Division Operations Manager and Deputy to the Divisional Commander.
In March 2003 he transferred on promotion to Bedfordshire Police, in the role of Superintendent Operations Manager at Central Division. In November 2003 he was promoted temporarily, to the post of Central Division Commander becoming substantive in this role in February 2004. In 2006 he led a team to plan the merger of Bedford and Central Divisions and took command of the operational and support services in M Division supporting Force and BCU performance.
Mike deployed in March 2007, on secondment with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on temporary promotion to Assistance Chief Constable in the role of UK Chief Police Advisor in Iraq. In this role he was responsible for leading policing and rule of law efforts, in a multi-national environment and in the delivery of key strands of the UK‘s reconstruction effort in Iraq.
In May 2008 he deployed as Head of Mission for Police Assistance Mission in Albania, leading an international team in the start up and delivery of a programme to build capacity in the State Police and the Ministry of the Interior, enabling development of policing in this Eastern European state which is aspiring to join the EU.
In 2009 Mike returned to Bedfordshire Police and takes over command of C Division at Luton on the 1st December, with responsibility for the policing services provided to the community of Luton.
Mike is married with 2 daughters and enjoys international travelling, running, listening to music and walking the dogs.
County Divisional Commander Andy Street
Andy Street joined Northamptonshire Police in 1982 after a short career in Local Government, Finance. He served in a number of roles including as a Rural Beat Officer, Firearms Officer and a Detective rising to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector. As a Senior Investigating Officer, he was in charge of several murder and other serious crime investigations.
In 2003 he took a two-year sabbatical from Policing and was involved with Professional Elite Sport at Northampton Saints Rugby Club with responsibility for developing young players.
On returning to Policing he was promoted to Superintendent with Bedfordshire Police, commencing in December 2005 and being posted to Dunstable as the Operations Superintendent. He have continued to serve on the new amalgamated Division, becoming the Deputy Divisional Commander and then to my great delight the Divisional Commander on my promotion to Chief Superintendent in May 2008.
He is married to Maggie and they have three children, Ben a Sports Co-ordinator, Sam who has just been accepted by Northants. Police as an officer and Emma who is about to move into the Sixth Form at School.
Having played rugby for Northampton Saints, sport has always been his third passion - behind his family and Policing and he has continued to be involved through coaching, watching and supporting their three children in their different sports.
Head of Protective Services Andrew Richer
Andrew Richer was born in Welwyn Garden City and grew up in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. He attended the Onslow Comprehensive School there and was amongst the first pupils from that school to attend University. He obtained a BA Hons in English from St David’s University College in Lampeter and went on to complete a Post Graduate Masters Degree in English at the University of Exeter.
Andrew joined Bedfordshire Police in 1983 and spent the majority of his early service patrolling in Luton. In 1990 he published a History of Bedfordshire Police as part of the Force’s 150th Anniversary celebrations. During his career Andrew has served at Luton, Dunstable, Bedford and Headquarters in a variety of different roles gaining broad experience of policing. In the Superintending ranks he has served as an Senior Investigating Officer (SIO), Director of Intelligence and the Head of Uniform Protective Services commanding Firearms, Dogs, Road Traffic and Contingency Planning.
As an SIO Andrew has overseen a significant number of complex homicide and major public order investigations including the disturbance at Yarls Wood on Valentines night in 2002. Andrew took up post as the Head of Protective Services on the 1st November 2007 and passed the National Strategic Command Course in early 2010.
Andrew’s interests include travel, film, theatre and sports. He is a mid-handicap golfer and follows, in particular, the NFL (American Football).
Head of Citizen Focus Clare Simon
Clare is the Divisional Commander for K Division with responsibility for Criminal Justice, Contact Management, and Crime Reduction.
She was born in Birmingham in 1964, and her family moved to Cambridgeshire in 1979. From there, Clare moved to Bedfordshire when she joined Bedfordshire Police in 1983.
Clare has served mainly at Luton in a variety of posts, including Leagrave as the Inspector in the wake of the Marsh Farm disturbances in the 1990s.
In 2001 Clare was seconded to the Home Office Drug Prevention Advisory Service at Cambridge, where she delivered a regional approach to tackling drugs. She returned to the force to implement the National Intelligence Model, then acted as Deputy Divisional Commander at Bedford, before transferring to Luton in the same role. There she implemented Luton Safe and piloted Neighbourhood Policing. Clare has returned to Bedfordshire from a secondment to HMIC where she led the Neighbourhood Policing and Citizen Focus inspections.
Clare is a qualified life coach with a Masters Degree in Training. Married with two step children, she plays the trumpet and enjoys politics, cycling, gardening, dog walking, and travel.
Head of Professional Standards Martin Darlow
Martin was born in Bedford and grew up in East Bedfordshire. Following comprehensive education, Martin joined Bedfordshire Police as a Cadet in 1979.
He became a Constable in 1982 working in South Bedfordshire before transferring to Biggleswade. In 1986 he was appointed as a Detective Constable at Luton. He was promoted to Sergeant at Bedford in 1989 and then soon after rejoined the CID dealing with a number of major crime and murder investigations as a Detective. In 1996, Martin was promoted to Detective Inspector and Head of CID for Mid-Bedfordshire before returning to Luton CID in 1997 as Head of Intelligence and Proactive Operations.
In 1999, Martin set up and headed the North Beds Rural Policing Unit before being appointed as a Detective Chief Inspector and Head of CID at Bedford in 2000. He was then selected to implement the Crime and Disorder Act at Bedford as Head of Community Safety.
In 2002, Martin was appointed as Head of Best Value and Inspections based at Police HQ until his promotion to Superintendent and Deputy Divisional Commander for Operational Support in 2004.
As a Superintendent he has also held roles as Head of Criminal Justice, Operations Commander and then Divisional Commander at Luton. In 2007 Martin was selected as Head of Professional Standards for Bedfordshire and in January 2009 was appointed to implement and lead Professional Standards for Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, the first such collaborated unit in the country.
During his career Martin has operated as a Senior Investigating Officer, Firearms Incident, Public Order and Major Sporting Events Commander.
Martin lives in Bedford and is married with two boys. He retired as a Football League Match Official in 2005 following a successful period at the top tier of football. His hobbies include football refereeing and cricket.
