Rachel Shields has been appointed as the new Assistant Chief Constable for Avon and Somerset Police.
Rachel started her policing career with Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in November 1999. After almost 22 years in Northern Ireland, Rachel moved to Avon and Somerset Police in September 2021 as a detective superintendent. Within six months she was promoted to Head of Investigations (now CID) in February 2022.
Rachel said: “I applied to be ACC because I believe in the importance of policing, especially during times of instability and fear in our communities. I believe I have the experience and values needed to help shape the forthcoming years.
“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.”
From her time policing in Northern Ireland, Rachel has experiences of fractured communities and working to heal divides, and she hopes the new role of ACC will help her to continue to build relationships between communities and the police officers who serve them and support trust and confidence in policing.