Alison Claire Heydari is a British chief police officer and criminal-justice leader serving as Commander for the Criminal Justice portfolio within Met Operations in the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). Over a policing career beginning in 2000, she has held operational and strategic responsibilities encompassing criminal investigation, public protection, child-abuse investigation, emergency response, crisis negotiation, geographic command, major-event public-order command, pan-London neighbourhood policing, national criminal-justice policy and cross-force institutional reform.
Her career has progressed from direct responsibility for victims, offenders, investigations and frontline decision-making to the leadership of complex operational systems, national standards, performance frameworks and organisational change. Her work has involved policing, public order protection and security, community engagement, central and local government collaboration, criminal justice, independent oversight and academia, combining operational command with evidence-led policy and strategic partnership.
At a national level, Heydari has served as the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) chief-officer lead for out-of-court resolutions and, at the temporary rank of Deputy Assistant Commissioner, directed a national cross-force reform programme operating across policing in England and Wales. Its principal territorial footprint encompassed all 43 territorial police forces and British Transport Police participating in national programme activity.
Heydari is a Visiting Fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, and in 2026 was awarded an honorary Doctor of Business Administration by the University of Greenwich. The NPCC and the University of Greenwich have described her as the most senior Black female police officer in the United Kingdom. She is one of only two women of colour serving as chief police officers in England and Wales.
Early life and background
Heydari was born and brought up in South London. She is the eldest of four children. Her parents came to Britain from Guyana towards the end of the Windrush era and met after arriving in London.
Heydari attended Rosa Bassett Grammar School in South London. After completing her O levels and A levels, she attended Chelsea School of Art.
Her parents travelled extensively with Heydari and her siblings while they were growing up, giving the family early experience of different countries, cultures and communities. She has described a childhood shaped by family, hard work, fairness, personal responsibility and a strong sense of community. Growing up in a diverse London household brought her into contact from an early age with people from different backgrounds and perspectives, an experience she has subsequently connected with her approach to public service.
Heydari initially considered a career in art. However, after accompanying officers on a ride-along, she said that the experience confirmed her decision to pursue policing as a means of contributing directly to public life.
Education and research
Heydari holds a first-class BSc in Social Policy, an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. She is also a Chartered Management Institute Fellow at level seven in Strategic Leadership and Management and in Coaching and Mentoring.
In October 2019, the University of Portsmouth awarded her a PhD for the thesis Enhancing the experience of procedural justice for domestic abuse survivors by improving the policing response.
Her research drew upon evidence from survivors, frontline officers, senior police leaders and independent domestic-abuse professionals and used quantitative and qualitative approaches, including Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. It examined the effects of communication, workload, training, organisational culture, risk management, scrutiny, supervision and leadership upon the quality of police decision-making and the experience of victims.
The research concluded that clear direction, appropriate scrutiny, effective training and properly supported officers could improve both risk management and the quality of service received by victims. It connected procedural justice and institutional legitimacy with practical improvements in policing performance.
The relationship between evidence, fair decision-making, operational effectiveness and public confidence subsequently became a recurring feature of Heydari's professional work.
Police career
Hampshire Constabulary
Heydari joined Hampshire Constabulary as a student officer at the end of 2000 and, after training, was initially deployed in Southampton. She entered the Home Office Accelerated Promotion Scheme for Graduates and was promoted to sergeant after just over two years' service.
Her subsequent appointments included detective work in the Criminal Investigation Department and responsibilities across serious crime, public protection, child-abuse investigation, cold-case review, domestic abuse, hate crime and the protection of vulnerable people.
She later held geographic commands in both urban and rural areas and had responsibility for emergency-response policing. For eight years she also served as a crisis negotiator, requiring disciplined communication, management of rapidly developing risk and decision-making in situations where consequences could be immediate.
As Southampton Police Commander, Heydari chaired the Southampton Safe City Partnership, working with local government, elected representatives and partner agencies on crime reduction, reoffending, antisocial behaviour, public safety and community resilience.
Her Hampshire career also included force-level strategic responsibility for victim care, hate crime and harmful practices, together with a secondment to His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. This gave her experience both of delivering policing operationally and of examining organisational performance and governance from an inspection perspective.
During her command career, Heydari also managed significant community, security and public-safety issues associated with terrorism in Portsmouth and hate crime in Southampton.
She subsequently qualified as a Public Order and Public Safety commander, ultimately becoming a Gold Commander, extending her experience into the strategic command of major events, security and high-risk operations.
Metropolitan Police Service
In June 2020, Heydari joined the Metropolitan Police Service as a chief officer and Frontline Policing Commander, with additional pan-London responsibility for neighbourhood policing.
As senior responsible officer for the Met's Strongest Ever Neighbourhood Policing programme, she helped establish the operating model, training, tasking and performance arrangements associated with plans for additional Police Community Support Officers and police officers. The programme incorporated Clear Hold Build, an intelligence-led approach combining targeted enforcement with sustained partnership activity and longer-term prevention in places affected by serious and organised crime.
During Heydari's leadership of the neighbourhood-policing portfolio, Town Centre Teams were implemented across all 12 Basic Command Units. The model comprised 19 Town Centre Teams, approximately 500 officers, together with plans for 150 additional Dedicated Ward Officers concentrated in areas assessed as experiencing comparatively high levels of risk, harm and demand.
The teams combined visible policing, intelligence-led deployment, enforcement, partnership tasking and neighbourhood problem-solving.
The Met's published 2021-24 executive structure also listed Commander Heydari within Specialist Operations - Security and Protection, alongside the Protection and Security Commands.
Heydari's London command experience has included the management of numerous critical incidents, major public events and complex safeguarding operations. For example, as a qualified Public Order and Public Safety Gold Commander, she served as Gold Commander for Pride in London three years in succession, assuming strategic responsibility for policing, deployment, public safety and engagement across a major central-London event.
In 2021, Heydari also chaired the Metropolitan Police Gold Group for Operation Topale, established following the Everyone's Invited disclosures concerning sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape in educational settings. At that stage more than 10,000 testimonies had been published. The policing response required coordination between safer-schools policing, neighbourhood teams, specialist safeguarding functions, children's services, local safeguarding partnerships and national policing structures.
These responsibilities added strategic incident command and complex multi-agency safeguarding to an operational background already encompassing investigation, public protection, emergency response and crisis negotiation.
Heydari has also been required to account publicly for operational policy and performance. In 2023, as the Met's Local Policing Commander, she appeared before the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee alongside senior representatives of policing, the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime and London local government to give evidence on neighbourhood policing and delivery in the capital.
In 2021, Heydari launched Behind the Badge, a careers and public-engagement initiative designed to improve understanding of the range of roles within modern policing. Its work included engagement with prospective Black applicants and young people who might otherwise have had limited exposure to frontline, specialist, operational-support and police-staff careers.
National criminal-justice leadership
In 2021, Heydari became the NPCC chief-officer lead for out-of-court resolutions, placing her within the national governance of criminal-justice policy across England and Wales.
Her portfolio included responsibility for the national strategic direction of out-of-court resolutions and preparation for the statutory cautioning reforms contained in Part 6 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
A national readiness review conducted as part of implementation received responses from 41 of the 43 territorial police forces. The work identified operational and resource requirements, involved the College of Policing in determining training needs and included engagement with the Home Office concerning implementation support.
The portfolio also explored the use of Project Fulcrum as a national digital mechanism intended to improve connectivity, efficiency, consistency and equal treatment in the application of diversionary interventions.
National guidance on Outcome 22 developed through the portfolio was consulted upon across police forces and approved through Chief Constables' Council.
In 2023, the Ministry of Justice identified Heydari as the NPCC policing lead when publishing proposals for a simplified national framework based upon Community Cautions and Diversionary Cautions.
The framework sought greater consistency while preserving a clear distinction between offences requiring prosecution and those for which an immediate, enforceable intervention could reduce further offending. It incorporated rehabilitation, reparation and victims' views while maintaining prosecution for serious and persistent offenders.
The work placed Heydari at the intersection of policing, legislation, prosecution, victims, offenders, courts and crime prevention.
Her work in this area has also been subjected to external evaluation. In 2025, Heydari participated in a research collaboration with the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds and York supported through the Cabinet Office Evaluation Accelerator Fund, examining whether Outcome 22 out-of-court resolutions were effective in reducing crime.