THE Chief Constable of North Wales Police, Gareth Pritchard, has retired after more than 30 years service.

He became the temporary Chief Constable, and took on the overall responsibility for the direction and control of responsibility for the Force last August, upon the retirement of his predecessor Mark Polin.

Gareth is married with four children, and was brought up in Snowdonia.

He joined North Wales Police in 1984 and as a Constable served in Corwen and in the traffic department at Wrexham.

In 1990 he was promoted to Sergeant at Rhyl and worked as a patrol and custody sergeant, and then in the community policing team at Rhuddlan.

Between 1994 and 1997 he worked in the corporate development department at police headquarters before moving to Flintshire as an Inspector. Between 1998 and 2003 he served as a Chief Inspector and Superintendent in the operational support division with responsiblity for armed response vehicles, the firearms team, roads policing, the dog section, and helicopter and emergency planning.

Between 2003 and 2008 he was the Divisional Commander for the Western Division covering Anglesey and Gwynedd. In 2008 he transferred to Police Headquarters and led Operation Quest, a Home Office initiative to improve the quality of service provided by the Force.

Gareth has a Master's Degree in Police Management from Manchester University and is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.

In June 2009, he was appointed temporary Assistant Chief Constable and after passing the National Strategic Command Course was appointed substantively as the Assistant Chief Constable in June 2010.

Between April 2013 and July 2018 Gareth was the Deputy Chief Constable having responsibility for professional standards, corporate services and operational support services which included firearms, roads policing, emergency planning and the force control room.