Chief officers

Debbie grew up in Leamington Spa and joined Warwickshire Police in March 1989. She has served across Warwickshire in a variety of roles and departments and served in every rank from Constable to Chief Constable.   Commencing her career within the south of the County, she worked on patrol and a variety of investigative roles, being promoted to Detective Sergeant in 2002. 

Debbie progressed through the ranks, being the first female Warwickshire officer to achieve the rank of Detective Inspector working within Reactive CID, Proactive CID and Intelligence.  As a Detective Chief Inspector, she set up the first Protecting Vulnerable Persons unit (PVP) and developed and implemented the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences into Warwickshire, before being promoted to Superintendent in 2009 to head up the then Judicial Services Department and having responsibility for custody and criminal justice.

She was one of the founder members of Senior Women in Policing for Warwickshire and was nominated and commended for a Continued Excellence in Performance Award presented by the British Association for Women in Policing.

Debbie was seconded to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate for Constabulary (HMICFRS) in 2011 as a Specialist Staff Officer leading on Vulnerability and, in particular, Child Protection.  Following this role, she returned to Warwickshire Police and was appointed as the first Policing Area Commander for South Warwickshire as part of the newly formed Strategic Alliance with West Mercia Police,  with accountability for policing across the districts of Warwick and Stratford upon Avon.

In 2015 she was promoted as Chief Superintendent and performed roles across the former alliance with West Mercia Police, heading up the Assurance and Service Improvement function and then as Head of Crime and Operations with accountability across West Mercia Police and Warwickshire Police.

Having been successful at the Senior Police National Assessment Centre (SPNAC) in November 2018, she graduated from the Strategic Command Course in March 2019 as the first Warwickshire female officer to do so.

Debbie was appointed as Assistant Chief Constable for Protective Services and Professional Services May 2019 whilst also leading the implementation of the force’s Evolve Change programme, transitioning services out of the Strategic Alliance.   

In February 2021 she was appointed as the force’s Temporary Deputy Chief Constable and was successful on the 1^st July 2021 in becoming the first female Chief Constable of Warwickshire Police in its 164 year history.   

Debbie holds the National portfolios on behalf of Policing (NPCC)  for Vetting and Firearms Licensing and Explosives and a variety of regional responsibilities. 

She is incredibly proud to be the Chief Constable of Warwickshire, which is where she was born and grew up, and also having the privilege of leading such a talented workforce.

She is a keen netball player and states she makes up her lack of talent with her enthusiasm and commitment whilst on court.  She is an animal lover and has many pets, including dogs, cats, horses, sheep and chickens and spends many hours training her dogs in agility and competing all over the country, the highlight being competing at Discover Dogs and the world famous Crufts dog show.

Alex Franklin-Smith, who was appointed Temporary Assistant Chief Constable for the force in August 2018, secured the permanent role of ACC in April 2020 which has responsibility for the Local Policing Directorate.

Alex Franklin-Smith began his policing career with Surrey Police in 2002 before transferring to Warwickshire Police in 2007. 

In 2008 he joined the National High Potential Development Scheme and worked in a variety of uniform and detective roles up to the rank of Superintendent. In 2012 he was seconded to the National Crime Agency (NCA) where he led a programme of work to tackle serious organised crime, terrorism and international drug trafficking.

On his return from the NCA, DCC Franklin-Smith took up the post of Director of Intelligence for Warwickshire Police, working across both Warwickshire and West Mercia as part of the then strategic alliance arrangements.  During this time, he led a programme of work which enabled the UK’s first national tasking and coordination arrangements for law enforcement.

In 2015 he was appointed Chief Superintendent responsible for local policing services across Warwickshire Police before becoming Assistant Chief Constable for the force in 2018.  He has extensive experience as a strategic firearms and public order commander and is co-chair of the Warwickshire Local Resilience Forum ensuring the county is well prepared for a whole range of civil emergencies. 

He is the national policing lead for burglary and holds postgraduate qualifications in Leadership and Management

He became T/Deputy Chief Constable for Warwickshire Police in July 2021 and in April 2022 was appointed to the post permanently. He will formally take up the role at the end of the month. 

In his downtime he enjoys all sports and for his sins supports Southampton Football Club!

David Gardner, who was appointed Temporary Assistant Chief Constable for the force in January 2021, secured the permanent role of ACC in January 2023, which has responsibility for the Protective Services portfolio for the force, and our strategy, data and technology portfolio.

Since joining Warwickshire Police in 2001, David has worked in a variety of roles within both Local Policing and Protective Services, up to and including the rank of Chief Superintendent. David has also worked nationally - being seconded to the Home Office and National Crime Agency (NCA) in 2012.

David’s leadership was key during the Evolve programme enabling us to become a standalone force in 2021.

In May 2018 Jeff Carruthers was appointed as Chief Finance Officer.

Jeff is a qualified accountant a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance (CIPFA) and Accountancy and The Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT). Having worked for Warwickshire County Council for the early part of his career Jeff gained wide-ranging experience in variety roles both in a central finance team and working directly with the front line service providers including head teachers, social workers and engineers, at the forefront of devolved financial management.

Jeff joined Warwickshire Police in 1997 as Systems Accountant and given the task of implementing a year 2000 (Y2K) compliant finance system. He subsequently took up roles that involved financial and business planning, budgeting and preparing the annual statement of accounts during a period of substantial change in Warwickshire Police, national policing, and the area of technical accounting and governance. Jeff was seconded to the team that prepared the business case for the proposed merger of the four regional forces; he was the finance lead for the tragic fire in a warehouse in Atherstone on Stour South Warwickshire where four of colleagues in the fire services tragically lost their lives. More recently he has worked on developing the accounting arrangements for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) and Chief Constables following the creation of the PCC and the financial accounting arrangements for the alliance. He holds a role on the national Police Pensions Board governing pension schemes administered by Kier Business Services Ltd. He has also support the National College of Policing to deliver the Senior Leadership Programme and is an active volunteer on the CIPFA 6^th Form Management Team Games which aims to develop students financial and management skills using a real live scenario.

In April 2013 Jeff took up the role of Head of Accountancy and Financial Services for the alliance and in May 2018 was appointed to the new role of the Chief Finance Officer which carries statutory responsibilities as the Chief Finance Officer to the two Chief Constable's of Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police.

Jeff has led the finance team through significant change including the formation of the alliance and consolidating the finance team on one site using a single finance system, common policies and harmonised financial arrangements, whilst reducing the core finance team by 50%.

It is Jeff's ambition to support the people in the Finance Directorate to be the best they can be. Both he and the team are committed to delivering cost effective financial services, ensuring there is appropriate financial control and seeking out greater efficiencies to increase our front line capacity and protect people from harm.

Tania’s career started as a PA, moved into finance and then has predominantly been in Human Resources for the last 18 years.

She joined Warwickshire Police in 2004 within the HR department, undertaking a variety of HR roles before taking on the expanded role of Head of People Services across both West Mercia Police and Warwickshire Police in 2012, moving into the Director of Enabling Services post for Warwickshire Police in October 2019.  She previously worked within financial services for seven years.

Tania led on the successful harmonisation of people policy, terms and conditions and the pay and grading structure for both forces when setting up the strategic alliance between Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police and states that this was one of her biggest challenges but also a career highlight.

The business areas within Enabling Services, which she leads, are:

Business Operations

Corporate Communications

Human Resources

Learning and Development

ICT

Stephen joined policing in 2018 and took up the role as Head of Analysis and Service Improvement when Warwickshire became a standalone force.

Stephen has spent most of his career working in the housing and care sector, both for public and private organisations. The bulk of the time was working for a large housing association in Birmingham where his final position was Director of Corporate Affairs, covering performance, strategy, research, data analysis and communications. Stephen then worked as a Commercial Director for a membership organisation, focused on benchmarking performance and best practise, before seeing the opportunity to join the force as Head of Analysis and Service Improvement.

As Head of Analysis and Service Improvement, Stephen had responsibility for a range of functions including performance, analysis, strategy, governance, audit, HMICFRS liaison, consultation, diversity and records management. More recently Stephen took on responsibility for change management and led on establishing the new force transformation programme.

The new directorate brings together analysis and service improvement, digital services, and information assurance business areas. The directorate will support the force in its ambitions to maximise the full potential of our technology into the future, Stephen also has responsibility for setting the strategy and driving forwards innovation and new ways of working during a critical time for the organisation as we deliver our Empower change programme.