Chief officer team
Commissioner Peter O'Doherty
Pete O'Doherty was appointed Commissioner, following a meeting of the Court of Common Council at Guildhall, on Thursday 10 October 2024. The appointment sees Pete lead the force as the 17th City of London Police Commissioner. He served as Temporary Commissioner from 23 October 2023.
Pete first joined the force in 2005 after graduating in mathematics and computer science. He worked across all areas, including major and specialist crime and is an experienced Public Order Gold Commander, as well as Strategic Firearms Commander.
In 2019 Pete became Assistant Chief Constable for Thames Valley Police and the South East Regional Lead for Counter Terrorism and Serious Organised Crime Unit. He has held national leadership roles including the Special Branch Transfer Programme for National Counter Terrorism Policing and was more recently, as the National Chief’s Council lead for Information Assurance and Cyber Security, commissioned by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Policing Board to lead a review of the data breach impacting the force.
Pete returned to the City of London Police as Detective Chief Superintendent for Crime and Counter Terrorism before being promoted to Assistant Commissioner for economic, fraud and cyber crime in January 2022.
Pete has now operated in the Economic and Cyber Crime space for over 10 years working across government, policing and industry to improve the UK’s response to economic and cybercrime.
Deputy Commissioner Local Paul Betts
Paul Betts joined the City of London Police as Deputy Commissioner Local on 4 January 2022.
Paul joined the force from the Metropolitan Police Service where he was Commander and Head of Professional Standards and Recognition.
He joined the Metropolitan Police Service in June 2020 from Sussex Police where he spent over a decade in public order and public safety. Paul is particularly interested in change management and developing people.
Deputy Commissioner National Nik Adams
Nik became Deputy Commissioner National for the City of London Police in October 2023.
Nik was appointed as Commander for fraud and cyber crime in March 2022, coordinating national portfolios, including Financial Investigation, Economic and Cyber Crime. Before joining the City of London Police, Nik spent four years as the National Coordinator for Prevent and was the lead for Safeguarding within Counter Terrorism Policing based at CTPHQ in New Scotland Yard.
Nik has been a police officer for over 20 years and spent most of his service with West Yorkshire Police working in Leeds, where he was the Leeds City Centre Commander and Neighbourhood Policing lead for South Leeds, before moving into Counter Terrorism Policing.
Commander Umer Khan
Umer Khan joined the City of London Police as Commander for Policing Operations and Security, joining Assistant Commissioner Paul Betts.
Umer joined the force after almost 27 years with Greater Manchester Police, where he started his career aged 21 as a Police Constable. On the path to his previous role as a Chief Superintendent, Commander Khan led in a wide range of areas, from the Commercial Fraud Unit to introducing the National Reassurance Programme to Oldham, following the 2001 riots. Umer also served as Territorial Commander for the City of Manchester and led on consequence management for the Manchester Arena Terror attack in 2017.
Commander Tor Garnett
Tor Garnett joined City of London Police as the Commander for National Functions in April 2025.
Tor started as a PC on Hackney Response Team in 2008 and later trained as a DC. She worked as a DS in Brixton Robbery Squad and Trident Gang command before returning to uniform as a Neighbourhood Inspector in Waltham Forest. As a Main Office DI she co-founded Police Now – a 2 year entry route and leadership programme based on Teach First to attract exceptional, diverse, emotionally intelligent graduates into policing. In 2015, Tor completed a US-UK Fulbright Scholarship in Washington DC on unconscious bias in police training before returning to the MPS as a DCI in Counter Terrorism, leading the armed surveillance operations room and tech ops. In 2016 she became a CT Senior Investigating Officer, running attack planning investigations including a viable IED left on the Jubilee line and leading proactive manhunts in the wake of the Westminster and London Bridge attacks. As a Detective Superintendent, Tor spent 2 years leading the MPS Learning Transformation programme and then became Head of Crime and Deputy Borough Commander for Central West BCU serving the communities of Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea. After having her second daughter she returned as Detective Chief Supt for Central Specialist Crime overseeing the Flying Squad, Modern Slavery, Online Child Sexual Abuse, Fraud, Cyber, Criminal Finance and a number of high profile investigations.
Tor is passionate about the policing mission to keep people safe and reduce crime through collaboration and energetic leadership. She led the cross-sector anti-violence collaboration ‘Take-90’ to challenge violence norms in London and founded the ‘Commissioner’s 100’ – a frontline do-tank harnessing the experience, innovation and spirit of frontline officers and staff.
Service Delivery Director Chris Bell
Chris Bell joined the City of London Police in December 2020 as its first Service Delivery Director, moving from his role of Commercial Director at the City of London Corporation.
Chris brings over 25 years’ experience in leading programmes and commercial functions specialising in business transformation, strategy development, outsourcing, operational excellence and commercial disciplines. Chris was the first ever Commercial Director in the unique surroundings of the City of London Corporation, with its 800+ years of trading history and its responsibility for the Square Mile which followed on from senior positions held within the private sector, at London 2012 and a range of local government positions in Scotland.
Chris was recognised for his work in the transformation of City Procurement seeing him named as the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) Management Professional of the Year 2016.
As the Service Delivery Director, Chris oversees the delivery of the services within the context of the National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting and Analytics. This includes operational responsibility of Action Fraud, the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau and the National Economic Crime Victim Care service. He is currently leading on the strategic transformation of these services to design, procure, implement and deliver the next generation national service to victims of economic crime scheduled to go live in 2024.
In addition, Chris is the chief officer responsible for Digital, Data and Technology and Information Management and Security within force.
Chief Operating Officer Alix Newbold
Alix Newbold was appointed Chief Operating Officer with responsibility for leading Corporate Services functions in 2023. Since 2012, Alix has held various strategic roles across City of London Police’s local and national responsibilities and undertook a secondment as Director of the City of London Police Authority in 2022. She received a National Crime Agency Director’s Commendation for her work on the creation of the multi-agency National Economic Crime Centre in 2018 and was awarded a distinction on completion of the National Policing Strategic Command Course in 2021. Prior to joining policing, Alix had a career in business development working for international law firms.
Joint Chief Finance Officer Alistair (Ally) Cook
Alistair (Ally) Cook is Joint Chief Finance Officer (CFO) for the Force and Police Authority.
A qualified accountant, Ally’s career has majored in Central Government, in which he has held senior Finance, Strategy and Transformation roles in a range of Agencies and Arms-Length Bodies. This has included spells at the then National Fraud Authority, Serious Fraud Office, Civil Nuclear Constabulary and British Transport Police. He joined the Corporation in 2018 to provide advice on police finances to the Police Authority and Chamberlain before taking up his current, collaborative role in early 2022. He is currently also a Trustee and Treasurer for three Charities.