2023 Speakers

Rod Hansen QPM joined Gloucestershire Constabulary as Deputy Chief Constable in May 2013 and in May 2017 took over as Chief Constable – 16th in the Constabulary’s 184 year history.

Prior to joining, Rod spent time being schooled in England, Canada and Ireland before acquiring a degree in Geography and Geology. He started his career at Avon and Somerset Constabulary policing South Gloucestershire more than 34 years ago. During that time has he covered a variety of roles from patrol inspector in central Bristol to District Commander for Bath and North East Somerset. Other postings involves leading the force surveillance team and reviewing child protection arrangements. He later helped to establish a 10 year Joint Venture Company delivering enabling services to 3 public sector organisations including the Constabulary. As a senior investigator, he has investigated deaths in two other forces and played important roles in serious and organised crime investigations. Rod was also an experienced Strategic Firearms Commander, has commanded over 300 firearms incidents and was a national assessor for this specialism for many years.

Rod has been a hostage negotiator since 1998 and for a number of years was the South West Regional Co-ordinator for negotiating. He was course director for the regional negotiators course and in October 2003 trained negotiators within the Greek police service in preparation for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

In 2010 Rod established the International Police Response Cadre (IPRC) which is a team of specially trained police officers working alongside the military able to deploy at short notice to high threat locations across the world. This has included assisting in supporting British overseas territories experiencing hurricanes and the subsequent humanitarian crisis that follow.

Rod has also been the Chief Police Advisor to the military Joint Task Force Headquarters (JTFHQ) and part of a multi-agency team of non-military advisors working closely alongside colleagues from the Stabilisation Unit, Department for International Development, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a variety of volunteer and charitable groups such as the International Red Cross.

His deployments to date include; Somalia to help devise the next phase of the United Nations (AMISOM) plan to bring security to the wider Horn of Africa and the Masai Mara, Kenya, working with Kenyan and Ugandan Rapid Deployment Forces on flood relief, food assistance programmes, malaria and refugee reduction.

Rod is also the current National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for mounted policing since 2012.  For a number of years he was the council’s lead for police dogs and the national lead for aviation (helicopters, fixed wing aircraft and the police use of drones).

As a long standing practitioner of Shotokai Karate, Rod still trains regularly and, as a fifth Dan instructor still finds time to teach a Constabulary club. Rod is therefore particularly passionate about how to use soft power to influence or affect others in a positive way. Since becoming Gloucestershire’s Chief Constable he has introduced a ground breaking supportive leadership and wellbeing programme which has transformed the culture of the Constabulary. The effect has been described by National academics as ‘astonishing’.

In 2018 Rod stimulated a partnership to create a self-leadership programme for children in the county. This led to him founding the BOOST programme which has been delivered to many thousands of children so far and has drawn national interest.