Chief Constable Kate Meynell

Chief Constable Kate Meynell took the reins at Nottinghamshire Police in December 2022. Previously the Deputy Chief Constable at Derbyshire Constabulary, she has returned to the force where she began and spent most of her career.

Kate, who grew up in Nottinghamshire, described her new role as her “dream job”. She said: “Nottinghamshire Police has a positive, strong workforce and I do feel we have the opportunity now to continue the improvements already started. I genuinely care passionately about the force and want to build on the good work that has been done and build relationships with external partners and communities.”

She spent most of her career serving with Nottinghamshire Police, including a two-and-a-half-year spell as Assistant Chief Constable when she led the force’s knife crime strategy and chaired the county strategic response to the Covid pandemic.

She is also the chair of the National Homicide Working Group, which looks into ways to improve the quality of investigations into homicide, including working on a national homicide reduction strategy.

Kate joined Nottinghamshire Police in 1993, when she was posted to Bulwell. For the first few years she worked across Bulwell, Hucknall and Eastwood in uniform roles before joining CID, undertaking investigation roles in Child Abuse Investigation Unit, Divisional CID and Homicide Team.

Progressing through the ranks in both uniformed and detective roles, in 2011 she was part of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU): Major Crime Unit before becoming head of the unit in 2015, overseeing major crime investigations across the East Midlands.

Kate has performed the role of SIO (Senior Investigating Officer) on a number of homicide investigations, including the investigation into a fatal house fire, where the six Philpott children were killed, resulting in the conviction of both their parents and a family friend of their manslaughter.

In 2017, Kate transferred to Northamptonshire Police to the role of Chief Superintendent, Head of Crime. While there she was responsible for CID, Public Protection, Intelligence and Serious and Organised Crime.

In 2018 she returned to Nottinghamshire Police as Assistant Chief Constable, leading the force’s knife crime strategy, before leaving to become Deputy Chief Constable at Derbyshire Constabulary in January 2021.