Chief Constable of Merseyside Annual Lecture

Title: The Leadership Morale Nexus

CC Rob Carden explores the vital link between leadership and morale in modern policing - why it matters now more than ever, and how it shapes the service we deliver to our communities. Drawing on over three decades of experience within the Force he recently rejoined - his father's Force and one he knows intimately - he shares personal insights and reflections on the evolving challenges facing policing today.

With a renewed focus on values-driven leadership, Rob asks the tough questions:

• Are we choosing leaders with the courage to do what’s right, not just what’s easy?
• How do we unite around shared goals and principles to deliver the service our communities deserve?

This is a timely and thought-provoking conversation about leadership, legacy, and the future of policing.

Chief Constable Rob Carden

Rob Carden began his career in policing in 1992 when he joined Merseyside Police after graduating with an Economics degree and joining the Graduate Management Scheme at GEC Plessey Telecommunications, where he worked for two years in procurement at the company's Edge Lane site in Liverpool.

He was unable to resist the pull of Merseyside Police and joined the force in 1992, following in his father's footsteps.

Rob now has more than 33 years policing experience and has an extensive range of command experience including firearms, public order, Counter Terrorism, football and conference policing.

Whilst the majority of Rob’s career has been spent in Merseyside, he has also worked for Sussex Police where he counts the 2002 Fatboy Slim concert, attended by over 250,000 people on Brighton beach, as his most memorable policing experience with the force.

After returning to Merseyside in 2006, he continued to build his reputation as a highly experienced and respected operational leader.

He was the programme lead for a Tri-Force Collaboration involving Merseyside, North Wales and Cheshire aimed at delivering a shared Niche platform as an enabler for operational collaboration. As a result of this work, he was awarded £2.24m of police innovation funding and recognised by the Home Office for delivering one of the first technically enabled operational collaborations in the country.

Rob was Gold Commander for the successful repatriation of British nationals from Wuhan Province, China, to Arrowe Park Hospital, Merseyside. As the first major operation linked to Covid in the country, the operation helped to shape the national policing response to Covid. He went on to manage Merseyside’s response to all phases of the Covid pandemic, implementing business continuity measures to sustain core operational functionality. He subsequently received a national commendation for outstanding leadership and his overall contribution to the policing response to Covid.

With a wide range of command experience Rob has held command roles in many high threat policing operations across Merseyside including, Gold Command for the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting, the largest security operation hosted in Merseyside and Gold Command for the Grand National (Aintree Festival), one of the most iconic sporting events in the world, on four occasions. Rob has also been a Counter Terrorism Commander and was the strategic firearms commander for the high-level policing operation that followed the terrorist incident at the Women’s Hospital in Liverpool.

Rob joined Cumbria Constabulary in 2022 on promotion to Deputy Chief Constable where he has led the most significant force restructure since the 1970s. He later became the Chief Constable of Cumbria Constabulary in August 2023. Following the excellent 2023-25 HMICFRS Inspection, Cumbria is now regarded as one of the top performing forces in the country.

He is currently the Chair of the Digital, Data and Technology Coordination Committee having previously led the NPCC Response Policing portfolio and NPCC Dangerous Dogs portfolio.

Rob has two master’s degrees, the second of which was from Cambridge University, where he won the Victor Lissack Award from the Institute of Criminology and was selected to support the University's work with the SVP National Police Academy in Hyderabad, India.

Rob is married with three sons and lives in Liverpool.