Chief Constable Sara Thornton is currently held up with “an urgent call”. The list of likely callers to the first head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) will undoubtedly include names direct from the corridors of power. Thornton’s job is to be the main point of contact into the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Crown Prosecution Service for the more than 40 police forces of England, Wales and Northern Ireland; she works “very closely” with, among others, Cressida (“Cress”) Dick, the commissioner of the Metropolitan police and the most important person in British policing. With Thornton’s current Herculean task being Brexit contingency planning, further interruptions may well be likely.
Fifteen minutes later, I’m ushered towards a grey sofa in Thornton’s
