David Thorne, Assistant Chief Constable

David Thorne was appointed Assistant Chief Constable in South Wales Police in June 2020 and is responsible for the Specialist Crime portfolio.

David initially qualified as a teacher in 1993, teaching physics and outdoor education, both in the UK and abroad. He has also worked as a mountain leader and kayak instructor.

David joined Devon & Cornwall Police in 1999. After his probationary period, he joined Exeter Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

On promotion to Sergeant, he worked on response, in custody and then in child abuse investigation, both strategically and operationally. At this time, he completed his Master’s degree in Police Leadership and Management.   As Inspector, he worked in Plymouth as a Critical Incident Manager prior to returning to crime investigation, as Detective Inspector for Torbay CID. In that capacity, he ran ‘street level up’ investigations to tackle the supply of illicit drugs and the associated harm.

On promotion to Chief Inspector, he returned to Public Protection where he oversaw complex safeguarding issues and operations. This experience forged his later involvement in the re-design of the force safeguarding approach where and the introduction of the Single Safeguarding Process and the Vulnerability Screening Tool (ViST).

In 2013, as Detective Chief Inspector [DCI] he moved to the Major Crime Investigation Team, where he achieved his goal of becoming an accredited homicide Senior Investigation Officer (SIO).

Latterly, he took up uniformed command roles, including overseeing policing in Plymouth as the local Commander, where he enjoyed tackling the challenges of policing a large urban area. He is also an accredited Strategic Firearms Commander and has spent time as a Temporary Assistant Chief Constable with Devon and Cornwall Police, in which role he had responsibility for Innovation, Contact and Demand.

He has long had an affection for South Wales and, over the years, has spent much time here.

David, a father of five, is a keen mountain biker and is delighted that South Wales is blessed with many world-class trails. He is looking forward to helping South Wales Police continue to provide a quality service to our communities.