Sara Thornton (police officer)

Dame Sara Thornton DBE QPM
Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner
In office May 2019 – April 2022
Preceded by	Kevin Hyland
Chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council
In office April 2015 – May 2019
Preceded by	Sir Hugh Orde (as Chair of the ACPO)
Succeeded by	Martin Hewitt, QPM
Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police
In office 2007–2015
Preceded by	Peter Neyroud
Succeeded by	Francis Habgood
Personal details
Born	(1962-12-27) 27 December 1962 (age 61) Poole, Dorset, England
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Alma mater	Durham University Wolfson College, Cambridge
Awards	Queen's Police Medal (2006) Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2011) Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2019)

Dame Sara Joanne Thornton, DBE, QPM (born 27 December 1962) was the UK's Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner from May 2019 until April 2022.^[1] She was appointed^[2] by the Home Secretary at the time, Sajid Javid, in succession to Kevin Hyland who left the post in May 2018.^[3]

She is a retired British police officer who was the first Chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and the former Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police^[4][5] and Vice-President of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). She was the second consecutive head of the Thames Valley Police to move onto leadership of a national policing body; at Thames Valley she replaced former Chief Constable Peter Neyroud who, in January 2007, moved to the role of Chief executive of the National Policing Improvement Agency. As of 2022, she is Professor of Practice in modern slavery policy at the University of Nottingham's Rights Lab.^[6][7]