Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC) Laurence Taylor began his police career with Sussex Police in 1996 as a Police Constable based in Hastings, East Sussex. The majority of his career has been spent in operational roles including Frontline Policing (Response, Neighbourhood Policing and Investigations), Specialist Firearms Commands and Public Order.
With Sussex Police, Laurence held a range of different roles including many years on their firearms teams as a Specialist Firearms Officer, followed by command roles as a tactical and specialist strategic firearms commander. He led many Public Order operations including Lewes Bonfire (the largest event of this type in Europe), Brighton Pride and the St George’s Day ‘March for England’.
As well as specialist roles, Laurence was heavily involved in Local Policing across the County and spent many years in Brighton leading their uniformed policing response. Whilst his time in Sussex primarily involved uniform policing, he also completed his Senior Investigating Officers accreditation, becoming the DCI, Crime Manager for East Sussex and spent time with the Corporate Development Department, overseeing the introduction of PCC’s from the previous Police Authority. He also led the Local Policing Programme, the largest change programme undertaken by the force, which transformed the way policing was delivered across the County. He left Sussex as the Assistant Chief Constable for Local Policing, Public Protection and Criminal Justice.
DAC Taylor transferred to the Metropolitan Police in July 2018 taking on responsibility for the Operations portfolio within Met Operations. This saw him responsible for a number of specialist areas supporting policing across the MPS including Firearms, Public Order and Resourcing, specialist capabilities including the Marine, Dog and Mounted Units, Roads Transport and Policing Command, Criminal Justice (Met Detention and Met Prosecution) and the MPS Contact and Control Centres.
In April 2021, Laurence moved role into Frontline Policing as DAC responsible for Local Policing. This included Neighbourhood Teams, Emergency Response, Local Investigations, Public Protection and the MPS response to Violence. He was the SRO for the Strengthening Neighbourhood Policing Programme.
Laurence’s current role, which he began in February 2023, is as DAC Specialist Operations. He is the Senior National Coordinator for Protect and Prepare within Counter Terrorism Policing, where he leads those two strands of the CONTEST strategy. He is also responsible for Protective Security in London, including Royalty and Specialist Protection, Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection, Protective Security Operations and Heathrow and City airports.
Since joining the MPS, he has led the response to a number of significant incidents including Brexit, Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion and, most recently, the protective security response to the conflict in Israel with Hamas. He was the Gold Commander for Covid as it emerged in the UK, setting up and coordinating the response across London with partners and preparing the MPS to operate through this unique period of time. He was the Gold Commander for the Streatham terrorist incident.
Laurence is an accredited and experienced Gold Public Order Commander and Gold CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) Commander. He is the NPCC Events Policing Lead and NPCC Lead for Drones. He also leads for the MPS and London region on police aviation and is the CPOSA (Chief Police Officers Staff Association) rep for the London region.
