Simon has had a varied policing career split between Essex Police, the Metropolitan Police and Sussex and Surrey Police, serving in specialist and community-related policing roles at all levels.
During his career Simon has specialised in hostage negotiation; public order policing; and, in armed policing, as a firearms officer and chief firearms instructor. He has held several firearms command roles.
As a chief officer in the Metropolitan Police Service, Simon had responsibility for the security portfolio, delivering the Protect strand of the Governments CONTEST strategy and aviation security covering London airports. Simon also held organisation-wide responsibility for the Met’s estate and physical security strategy as well as being their lead for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN).
In 2022 Simon transferred to the Sussex Police in a collaborative role with Surrey Police, with responsibility for specialist uniformed operational support across both forces involving armed policing, public order, dogs, roads policing, emergency planning and local resilience. Simon was Senior Responsible Officer for multiple programmes of work to improve operational effectiveness and efficiencies across both forces as well as being Chair of the Joint Force Legitimacy Board scrutinising use of police powers and Chair of county level road safety partnerships and the Sussex Local Resilience Forum.
In addition to his core roles, for the past four years, Simon has been the National Police Chiefs’ Council portfolio lead for aviation security and airport policing, working with commercial, governmental and law enforcement partners to improve the coordination, communication and consistency of cross-service collaboration in relation to protective security and policing of airports and general aviation.
Simon is a proud member of the Forward Institute which is a body made of up public, private and voluntary sector senior leaders who are passionate about pursuing the agenda of responsible leadership and the development of leaders both in and outside of policing. Simon is committed to driving change in organisational culture and has been a senior sponsor within the Met, Surrey and Sussex Police for leading work in support of improving inclusivity, diversity and equality.
Simon holds a Master’s degree in Risk, Crisis and Resilience Management.
Commenting on his new appointment, Simon said:
I am delighted to be joining the Ministry of Defence Police and am looking forward to meeting and working with new colleagues and partners. I hope to bring all my experience in being part of the collective mission to protect the nation’s defences and national infrastructure.
Chief Constable Melanie Dales said:
I am pleased to welcome Simon Dobinson as our new Assistant Chief Constable. He brings a breadth of knowledge from his previous forces which will help strengthen the MDP as we continue to build our capability to serve Defence, improve our culture, and reach our strategic goals.
We are all very much looking forward to welcoming Simon to the Force.