Assistant Chief Constable – Operational Support
Assistant Chief Constable Gary Ritchie is the Executive Lead for Operational Support.
ACC Ritchie's portfolio consists of the following business areas:
- Events and Emergency Resilience Planning
- Events and Resilience Planning
- Royalty & VIP Protection
- Scottish Resilience Partnership
- Testing & Exercising
- Aviation Safety & Security
- Resource Deployment Unit
- Resource Deployment Redesign Project
- National Football Information Point
- Civil Contingencies
- SMARTEU
- Protect & Prepare
- Specialist Services
- Armed Policing
- Taser
- Public Order
- Negotiators
- Use of Force Monitoring
- Air Support Unit
- Dog Branch
- Mounted Unit
- Maritime Policing
- Clothing & Equipment
- Road Policing
- Police Negotiating Board
- Railway Policing Committee
- Clinical Governance Group
ACC Ritchie was appointed to his current portfolio in August 2023. Prior to this, on his appointment as ACC in 2019, he was initially Strategic Lead for Operational Change and Resilience before taking on the role of Executive Lead for Partnerships, Prevention and Community Wellbeing later that year.
He joined Strathclyde Police in 1991 and was a Superintendent leading the Local Policing Development and Support Team at the inception of Police Scotland.
He was promoted to Chief Superintendent and appointed Divisional Commander of Dumfries and Galloway in 2016.
