Gloucestershire ex-police chief accused of misconduct praised for decades of 'exemplary' service
Summary
Gloucestershire’s former chief constable Rod Hansen, whose contract expired last week, has been praised for his “exemplary” service to policing over the last 38 years. Mr Hansen, who was suspended at the time, left the role at the end of July as his contract ended and was not renewed by police and crime commissioner Chris Nelson.
Details
Mr Hansen, who firmly denies any wrongdoing, had been suspended on full pay since October 2024 and is awaiting a hearing into alleged gross misconduct. The Independent Office for Police Conduct concluded in August last year that the then chief constable should face a gross misconduct hearing over allegations he failed to appropriately act on a report of a data breach.
It is alleged that Mr Hansen did not sufficiently act on information passed to him in October 2022 regarding a staff member suspected of carrying out an unauthorised search of police systems and accessing third party personal data after a road traffic collision. He is also alleged to have given a false/misleading statement during the course of the investigation into the data breach.
The hearing opened last month but was postponed for legal reasons and will not reconvene before December. Former Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner Martin Surl, who appointed Mr Hansen to the top job in 2017, said the announcement that the chief constable was to leave his job at the end of last month will have come as a shock to many people.
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“I’m sure it will have surprised the constabulary’s police officers and staff who received the news in the coldest and briefest internal memo Mr Nelson could bring himself to pen less than 24 hours after the chief constable was due to defend himself against accusations of gross misconduct,” he said.
Mr Surl said a suspension of over two years to investigate a non-criminal matter is absurd, whatever the outcome of the misconduct hearing. He went on to thank Mr Hansen for his “exemplary” service to policing over the past 38 years. “Since joining Gloucestershire Constabulary as deputy chief constable in 2013 and becoming chief constable in 2017, he has demonstrated outstanding leadership and commitment,” he said.
“In my view, which is shared by many in policing and by the public alike, he has been an exceptional chief constable.
“I know he is deeply saddened that he will not now have the opportunity to clear his name while remaining in post.” A spokesperson for the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gloucestershire said: “There are currently reporting restrictions in place surrounding the gross misconduct hearing regarding Mr Hansen; these were put in place by the chair of the panel, from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.
Report source: Gloucestershire Live