Thames Valley Police appoint new assistant chief constable of local policing

Assistant Chief Constable Christian Bunt took over this role on Monday August 3 from ACC Chris Ward, who is retiring.

ACC Bunt joined Thames Valley Police in 2002 and has worked much of his career in a wide range of local policing roles including having been local police area commander for Wokingham and Oxford.

ACC Bunt has performed operational command roles at all ranks including 15 years as a Public Order Commander, commanding some of the force’s largest events and operations over this period. More recently he has been in charge of the force’s response to Coronavirus.

His ACC role oversees all aspects of local policing including emergency response, investigation and neighbourhood policing teams.

ACC Bunt said: “Thames Valley Police has been through some significant challenges over the last twelve months and I have been hugely impressed with how Local Policing has responded and supported our communities through this.

“I am really excited by the opportunities to take Local Policing to the next level and looking at a number of areas where we can make further positive steps in the service we deliver to our local communities. This includes building on our already very strong neighbourhood policing, providing a timely response when the public need us most and visible policing to provide reassurance and deter crime and anti-social behaviour.

“Where crime does occur I want us to effectively investigate and provide a good service to the victim. I also want to ensure we are proactively tackling those that cause most harm in our communities. We will work with our partner agencies to achieve this but where there is a need for proactive enforcement operations that is the role of the police and a style of policing that I like to see”.