Avon and Somerset Police appoint new Assistant Chief Constable
Rachel Shields has been appointed to the position, stepping into the role following the retirement of former ACC Will White earlier this year.
A new Assistant Chief Constable has been appointed for Avon and Somerset Police.
Rachel started her policing career with Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in Northern Ireland in November 1999 as a response constable.
After almost 22 years of service in Northern Ireland, Rachel made the move 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.
She described her experience of moving to Avon and Somerset and transitioning to a different policing model and new systems as initially 'disorientating', however said she had been 'welcomed with open arms' and everyone she had crossed paths with had treated her with kindness and patience.
From her time policing in 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.Â
Alongside her career, Rachel is a mother to two children and spends her time cheering them on from the sideline of a hockey pitch watching them play all over the country, a sport she used to play once as a child herself.