Chief officers

Stephen Watson is amongst the most experienced senior officers in the country having joined Lancashire Constabulary in 1988. He was appointed to Merseyside Police in 2006 on promotion to Chief Superintendent, where he initially headed up the force's Strategic Development Department. He subsequently served for 3 years as Area Commander for Liverpool North, one of the largest and most challenging Basic Command Units in the country.

In 2011, he was appointed to the Metropolitan Police as Commander for the East Area, with responsibility for all aspects of operational policing across nine London boroughs. This dynamic and diverse area is home to over 2.3 million Londoners and he held command of 6,250 police officers and staff with a total operating budget of £325 million.

As a qualified firearms and public order commander, he regularly performed Gold Command roles in a number of high-profile policing operations and critical incidents, including a fatal helicopter crash in central London and in working with partner agencies across East London so as to restore public confidence in the aftermath of the 2011 riots. As a senior member of the 2012 Olympic Command Team, he was awarded the Commissioner’s Commendation in recognition of his role, which involved the planning and delivery of all territorial policing across London throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In June 2015 Stephen returned to the north of England, having been appointed Deputy Chief Constable for Durham Constabulary, and in July 2016 Stephen took up his appointment as Chief Constable for South Yorkshire Police (SYP). During his tenure, SYP became the most improved force in the country for 3 consecutive years and is today amongst the very top tier of high performing forces.

Stephen became Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) in May 2021. GMP is the second largest force in England and Wales with circa 14,500 officers and staff; and an operating budget of approximately £820m.

His appointment came at a difficult time for GMP. The force had been placed into ‘Special Measures’ by HMICFRS given the manifold failings in the organisation at that time. Such was the extent of early progress that GMP was formally brought out of external engagement in October 2022 – the most rapid recovery journey ever recorded in contemporary British policing history. GMP achieved the welcome epithet of most improved in the country during 2022/23 and today remains powerfully resurgent across all measures of police performance.

In March 2023, Stephen was appointed, by the Home Secretary, to be a non-executive Director on the Board of the College of Policing. In July 2023, he assumed the role of Service Director for the Executive Leadership element of the UK’s Police Leadership Programme. This is policing’s most senior leadership development course and assists in the identification and training of the future leaders of British policing.

Stephen has previously led for the National Police Chief’s Council in respect of Crime Prevention and was Chair of the National Counter Corruption Advisory Committee.

His formal management qualifications include a Master's Degree in Business Administration. In 2019, Stephen was awarded the Queens Police Medal (QPM) for distinguished service. He was extraordinarily honoured to receive the award personally from HM Queen Elizabeth II.

DCC Terry Woods began his policing career in July 1996 when he joined Lancashire Constabulary as a Police Constable having previously been a Special Constable in Greater Manchester.

He enjoyed a wide and varied career within Lancashire serving the public across many areas in including Burnley, Blackburn, Preston and Blackpool. He has served in several departments including Response, Road Policing & Motorway, Operational Support Unit, Child Sexual Exploitation Teams, Neighbourhood and Change Management.

Terry is an accredited Specialist Strategic Firearms, CBRN, Public Order and Multi Agency Commander and has commanded many large-scale operations over a number of years including firearms and counter terrorism operations, civil emergencies, demonstrations, football matches and security operations. He also led the initial multi agency response in the early stages of COVID pandemic within Lancashire as chair of the Lancashire Resilience Forum.

He was promoted to ACC in 2017 before being appointed as the Deputy Chief Constable in 2019. In 2021 he was awarded the Queens Police Medal for his services to policing being described as an ‘exemplary operational leader’. He is also the NPCC lead for Police Driving.

On 1 September 2021 he was appointed as the Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police.

Chief Resource Officer

CRO Lee Rawlinson joined GMP in July 2023 in the role of Chief Resource Officer.

He joined from the Environment Agency, where, as the Director for Sustainability and Service Operations, he led on: all aspects of corporate services, including HR, finance, fleet, estates and digital and data; corporate governance and operating systems, including business resilience; and the challenges of climate change, carbon reduction and net zero ambitions.

Born and raised in Rochdale, Lee knows Greater Manchester well, and as a senior incident commander for major disasters such as floods, fires and pollution, he has worked directly with GMP and partner agencies, including the Combined Authority and local authorities, on many incidents in the past. 

Lee is an advocate of and has been an active leader on gender equality and social mobility. He has also been a board member for a number of organisations and charities for over 15 years, including the University of Bradford and Chester Zoo.

Lead for Local Policing

ACC Matt Boyle joined GMP as Assistant Chief Constable in April 2023 leading on local policing after a 25-year career at Merseyside police where he started in 1998 as a PC in Huyton in the Knowsley borough of Merseyside.

Matt has worked across many roles in Merseyside including the Force Dog Section and overseeing a new leadership framework and police uplift programme, however his primary focus has been across neighbourhood policing – from Neighbourhood Inspector for St Helens and Superintendent for Sefton to Chief Superintendent over local policing. 

Matt has also been Public Order Commander for several high-profile incidents across the Merseyside region as well as being an accredited match commander and has commanded high risk football fixtures and worked abroad at several Champions League fixtures.

Lead for Counter Terrorism Policing in the North West (CTPNW)

Robert Potts joined GMP in 1992 and has spent all his service with the force. He was appointed Temporary Assistant Chief Constable in June 2015 prior to his substantive promotion in April 2016. 

Prior to becoming an Assistant Chief Constable Rob worked in a number of districts and branches, including a period of time as Divisional Commander for South Manchester between 2009 and 2014, which followed a posting as Temporary Divisional Commander at Salford. In his time at both districts he was responsible, not only for operational delivery, but additionally for developing and implementing two new policing models that were both rolled out across the force.

As Assistant Chief Constable over almost nine years Rob has at different stages held portfolio responsibility for a range of areas including Public Protection, Local Policing Branch, all Districts, Operational Communications, Criminal Justice, Custody, Volunteers in Policing, Equality Diversity and Human Rights, Serious Violence, Organisational Change, Information Services and the policing consequences of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.

Rob is an accredited Specialist Strategic Firearms Commander, Gold Public Order Commander, Strategic CBRN Commander, Multi-Agency Gold Incident Commander, Senior Authorising Officer, CT Commander and SIRO. He is also a Course Director for the National Specialist Firearms Command Development Programme.  

Rob is currently the Chief Officer responsible for Counter Terrorism Policing in the North West (CTPNW). Counter Terrorism Policing is a national network that supports forces across the country and the North West forces of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside form the NW region. CTPNW comprises around 1,000 staff from across the NW forces who work with the forces, partners and communities to protect the public from terrorism.

Portfolio lead for Force Contact, Crime and Operations Branch (FCCO) and Specialist Operations.

ACC Chris Sykes is currently responsible for the Force Contact, Crime and Operations Branch (FCCO) in Greater Manchester Police. This involves leading the Force Contact Centre, Fore Operations Unit and Force Crime Management Unit.

He is also responsible for the Specialist Operations Branch, having experience at a strategic level across a range of command roles including firearms, public order/public safety and multiagency command which involves the police and GM Partners responding to major incidents. Chris is the Chair of the Greater Manchester Resilience Forum and has commanded many large scale and high profile events across Greater Manchester, including sporting events, Royal visits and political conferences.

Previously, Chris was the Head of Local Policing and Criminal Justice based at Greater Manchester Police's headquarters. He was responsible for Public Service Reform, Neighbourhoods, Confidence and Equality, and Criminal Justice and Custody. He is an experienced operational commander. Over the years he has led policing in Bury, Rochdale and Stockport, and previously held senior roles in Manchester and Oldham.

Chris leads the work in GMP to ensure we are the most armed forces friendly police force in the country, recognising the skills our Armed Forces Community bring into the organisation, as well as the debt we all owe to those who have served, keeping the UK and many other countries safe.

Chris is a Specialist Strategic Firearms Commander and Gold Public Order Commander.

Rick Jackson was promoted to Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) in June 2024 and leads on Crime, Intelligence, and Forensics.

He began his policing career in June 1995, joining Greater Manchester Police (GMP) as a police constable. He remained with GMP throughout his career and has progressed to the rank of ACC.

He has spent much of his career in investigative roles, both on district and within the Public Protection and Serious Crime division.

During his time with GMP, he has been seconded to HMICFRS for three months, followed by a secondment to the Home Office as a 'lead peer reviewer'. He later became the lead for Performance and Improvement oversight in January 2021.

Rick spent several years as a superintendent in Bolton and has maintained a foothold in Bolton as a non-executive director for Fortalice, a Bolton-based domestic abuse charity.

He undertook the Cambridge Executive Police Leadership course in 2017, successfully completing a master’s degree in Police Management and Evidence-based Policing. He has qualified as a Public Order Gold Commander, a Strategic Firearms Commander and a Multi-Agency Gold Incident Commander.

After being the commander of the City of Manchester for 18 months he successfully passed the ACC process and has now joined the chief officer team in GMP.

Director of Finance

ACO Ian Cosh joined GMP in March 2022, in the newly created Assistant Chief Officer role of Finance Director.

Ian joined GMP from Lancashire Police where he was Director of Resources. In this role he was the Constabulary’s Chief Finance Officer and had responsibility for a wide range of services including, procurement, legal services, information technology, estates, fleet and facilities and was the force Senior Information Risk Owner.

Ian has over 36 years’ experience in public finance including a significant period of that time dealing with policing. He brings experience of working nationally on police financial matters and his influence and experience in policing is highly regarded.

As the Assistant Chief Officer for Finance, Ian has overall responsibility for GMP’s financial position. In addition, he has overall responsibility for Legal Services and is the Senior Information Risk Owner for the force.

Director of IT & Digital

ACC Steph Parker leads the portfolio for Protecting Vulnerable People. 

Assistant Chief Constable John Webster leads the portfolio for Crinimal Justice, Custody and Prevention.