Mr Nick Croft
Following in the footsteps of his father, Nick’s policing journey started in 1982 when he joined the Warwickshire Police Constabulary as a uniformed response officer.
After serving as a community beat officer and tutor constable, Nick specialised in training, completing a secondment with the Home Office to develop police trainers. During this time, Nick obtained a Masters Degree in Education with Hull University.
After completing his secondment, Nick rose through the ranks to become Superintendent (Operations) in the Southern Area BCU, where he had planning and command responsibility for many large-scale events including the Royal Show, Warwick Castle Concerts and the Bulldog Bash, a four-day event which attracts Hells Angels from across Europe.
On promotion to Chief Superintendent, Nick commanded the regional collaborative ‘Central Motorway Police Group’, Here he led on the introduction of the Highways Agency Traffic Officer Service and the M42 Active Traffic Management Project. He then became Chief Superintendent of Force Operations, before becoming Head of Professional Standards.
Nick later transferred to West Midlands Police and served as a BCU Commander for Dudley South, working closely with the Local Authority to develop and implement neighbourhood policing.
A career highlight was Nick’s secondment to the ‘ACPO Project 2010’, an initiative which examined the future of policing. The final report was circulated to all forces in England and Wales.
Throughout his service, Nick developed skills in a number of policing areas. He is an experienced Firearms, Public Order and CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear) Commander, and is also a qualified Hostage Negotiator.
Nick joined South Wales Police as Assistant Chief Constable of Corporate Intelligence in April 2008, and in July 2009, became the ACC for Human Resources. In January 2011 his portfolio changed when he became ACC Specialist Operations.
He is now responsible for:
- Specialist Operations
Call & Incident Management
Roads Policing
Firearms
Dogs & Mounted Section
Air Support
- Information Systems
ICT
Information Management
Freedom of Information
Niche
Police National Computer
MoPI (Managing of Police information)
Data Protection
Information Security
- Professional Standards
- Firearms Licensing
Nick has maintained his links with Roads Policing and chairs the All Wales Roads Policing Joint Advisory Group. He is also the UK ACPO lead for police vehicle procurement and police vehicle technology.