Personal profile
Alan Edwards LLB MA JP is a former Detective Superintendent and is currently a deployable civilian expert on combating serious organised crime with the Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation, FCDO.
Following several years in the Royal Military Police Alan Edwards joined the West Mercia Constabulary.
He qualified as a police trainer and adult educator in 1992 working in National Police Training for 2 years. He has subsequently trained officials in rule of law institutions both here and overseas for the past 30 years.
He was Head of his Force Intelligence Bureau leading the project to introduce Intelligence Led Policing across his force. He has served with RCS, NCS, NCIS and SOCA, all precursors of the National Crime Agency as a detective investigating serious crime.
In 2003 he developed and led the Illicit Laboratories Unit to combat synthetic narcotics production units across the UK, training with his team at home, in the Netherlands, and the USA.
He also led a covert anti-corruption team based in London with a national remit.
In 2005-6 he was deployed to Istanbul to establish an upstream office dealing with human trafficking and people smuggling.
2006-2008 he was DCI Intelligence / Organised Crime and also Head of Special Branch.
In 2010 he was deployed to Telford as DCI CID. Here he opened Operation Chalice the “one of the country’s largest ever child sex abuse investigations”. He was commended at the time and in the subsequent independent inquiry, and the investigation was subject of a Channel 4 BAFTA nominated documentary.
In 2013-16 he was deployed to Kosovo as Detective Superintendent and Chief of the Organised Crime Investigation Unit for the EU mission EULEX. He led a team of armed detectives from 20 countries, alongside local law enforcement. Their mandate was to investigate organised crime, corruption, and terrorism. This team had full executive powers using evidential intercept led investigations with international prosecutors and judges.
In 2017 after retiring from the police he was then deployed to Sudan by the FCDO. Here he was the Migration and Governance Advisor based at the British Embassy. He developed working relationships with senior police across Eastern Africa and established The Regional Operational Centre Khartoum (ROCK) targeting criminal networks facilitating human trafficking and people smuggling into Libya and then Europe. He then became the Technical Director of ROCK working for the French Government until the end of 2020.
Since then, he has carried out evaluations of police initiatives, developed strategies for change, and delivered training. One example being the delivery of training on Battlefield Evidence collection to the Nigerian military engaged in combating Boko Haram.
Alan Edwards also has other volunteer roles in society. He is a Magistrate in Shropshire and a Trustee of the Wenlock Olympian Society (the home of the Modern Olympics).