Assistant Chief Constable Richie Allen

Born in Alnwick, Richie Allen’s entire 24-year police career has been spent serving the communities of County Durham and Darlington.

He started out as a police constable on the beat in Bishop Auckland in 2000 and went on to serve first as a neighbourhood sergeant in Crook and then a custody sergeant in Newton Aycliffe.

After periods in response policing and operations planning, Richie became Head of Neighbourhoods in 2018 and spearheaded the force’s response to policing the Covid-19 pandemic.

More recently as Head of Local Policing, he has overseen operational response policing across the force.

He said: “My passion has always been neighbourhood policing: understanding the impact that crime and antisocial behaviour has on our communities and doing everything we can to deal with it together.

“We get our best results when we work with our communities, respond to the intelligence they gave us and work together to solve problems and keep people safe.”

A keen sportsman and lifelong Newcastle United fan, Richie lives in County Durham with his family.