Chief Constable Rob Carden
Rob Carden joined Merseyside Police in 1992, following in his father’s footsteps.
Whilst the majority of Rob’s career has been spent in Merseyside, he has also worked for Sussex Police where he counts the 2002 Fatboy Slim concert, attended by over 250,000 people on Brighton beach, as his most memorable policing experience with the force.
After returning to Merseyside in 2006, he continued to build his reputation as a highly experienced and respected operational leader.
He was the programme lead for a Tri-Force Collaboration involving Merseyside, North Wales and Cheshire aimed at delivering a shared Niche platform as an enabler for operational collaboration. As part of this work, he was awarded £2.24m of police innovation funding and recognised by the Home Office for delivering one of the first technically enabled operational collaborations in the country.
Rob was Gold Commander for the successful repatriation of British nationals in Wuhan Province, China, to Arrowe Park Hospital, Merseyside. As the first major operation linked to Covid in the country, the operation helped to shape the national policing response to Covid. He went on to manage Merseyside’s response to all phases of the COVID pandemic, implementing business continuity measures to sustain core operational functionality. He subsequently received a national commendation for outstanding leadership and his overall contribution to the policing response to Covid.
Rob has a wide range of command experience including Gold Command for the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting, the largest security operation hosted in Merseyside and Gold Command for the Grand National (Aintree Fesitval), one of the most iconic sporting events in the world, on four occasions. Rob has also been a Counter Terrorism Commander and was the strategic firearms commander for the high-level policing operation that followed the terrorist incident at the Women’s Hospital in Liverpool.
Rob joined Cumbria Constabulary in 2022 on promotion to Deputy Chief Constable where he has led a programme of change incorporating a full restructure of the force. He then became Chief Constable of Cumbria Constabulary on the 1st August 2023.
He is is the NPCC lead for Digital, Data and Technology Coordination Committee, Response Policing and Dangerous Dogs. He is also a member of the National Wellbeing Board and the Digital Public Contact Board.
Rob has two master’s degrees, the second of which was from Cambridge University, where he won the Victor Lissack Award from the Institute of Criminology.
Rob is married with three sons.
Twitter: @CumbriaChief