Craig Guildford
Craig Lewis Guildford is a former senior police officer, who ended his career as the chief constable of West Midlands Police between 2022 and 2026, having begun his police career as a special constable with Cheshire Constabulary.
He is a Deputy Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire and a member of the Army Reserve.
Career
Craig Lewis Guildford was born in 1973 or January 1974.He obtained a degree in geography at the University of Derby, then joined Cheshire Constabulary as a police constable in 1994, having been a special constable there since 1992, while also a student.
Guildford spent time on CID in Cheshire before being seconded to the National Crime Squad in Manchester in 2000. Guildford eventually reached the rank of Superintendent in Cheshire Constabulary.
He was made assistant chief constable at West Yorkshire Police in October 2012, and deputy chief constable with Gwent Police in April 2014.
Guildford then made the move to Nottinghamshire Police, to become their Chief Constable in February 2017.
Serving in the Adjutant General's Corps of the Army Reserve, he was promoted in 2014 from sergeant to lieutenant and immediately became a captain in the Provost Branch.
West Midlands Police
On 25 July 2022, Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster confirmed that Guildford would replace David Thompson as the Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police. Guildford formally took the role on 5 December 2022.He also served as the National Police Chiefs' Council lead officer for professional standards and ethics, and complaints and misconduct.
In November 2023, an incident took place following a function at the Tally-Ho! Police Training School in Edgbaston, in which Guildford and an Inspector from His Majesty's Inspectorate of the Constabulary called 999 after their taxi driver began driving erratically, leading Guildford to believe they were being robbed.
In November 2024, he retired as Chief Constable of West Midlands Police for one month in order to protect his pension, which would otherwise have fallen in value after 30 years' unbroken service, before taking up the post again. Scott Green served as Acting Chief Constable in the interim.
Maccabi Tel Aviv incident and retirement
On 14 January 2026, the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, declared in the House of Commons that she had no confidence in Guildford, following a select committee review of his force's advice to ban away fans from Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. game against Aston Villa in Birmingham on 6 November 2025. An intelligence report compiled by West Midlands Police for the local safety advisory group contained errors, including the misrepresentation of information received from Dutch police about a previous match in Amsterdam. The report also mentioned a non-existent match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and West Ham. When appearing before the House of Commons' Home Affairs Select Committee, Guildford denied suggestions that AI had been used in writing the report and said that the fictitious match had appeared in a Google search. On 14 January 2026, he apologised to the Home Affairs Select Committee for having misled them, admitting that Microsoft Copilot, an AI tool, had generated the fictitious West Ham match.On 16 January 2026, Foster announced Guilford's retirement "with immediate effect". Deputy Chief Constable Scott Green was appointed as Guildford's successor in an acting capacity. The Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, criticized the decision to allow Guildford to retire and called for him to face misconduct proceedings. The following Monday, Foster referred Guildford to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.