Chief Constable Serena Kennedy KPM

Serena Kennedy began her career in Policing in 1993 with Greater Manchester Police having gained a degree in Applied Biology at the University of Hull.

Since that date she has had a varied career across three forces.

She started her service in uniformed policing working in response, neighbourhood policing, intelligence and sometime as a Detective up to the rank of Inspector.

In 2008 she was promoted to Detective Chief Inspector with the Major Incident Team and in 2010 she moved from being a detective back into a uniformed role as Superintendent in charge of partnerships and local policing where she piloted a new approach to community engagement empowering communities to build social capital including the use of participatory budgeting - which she is still passionate about. Two years later she returned to the Serious Crime Division as Detective Superintendent until she transferred on promotion in 2014 to Cheshire Constabulary as Chief Superintendent where she developed the first Public Protection Dept. She also led on the introduction of a brand new early help model across the whole of the force and the four local authorities which included an innovative single front door approach and co-located team.

In 2017 Serena joined Merseyside Police as Assistant Chief Constable, Investigation and Intelligence after she had successfully completed the Strategic Command Course.

In 2018 she was promoted to Deputy Chief Constable and in April 2021 became the first female Chief Constable to lead Merseyside Police.

Leadership is something that Serena is passionate about and she continues to develop herself through CPD and coaching. She has always taken seriously her role as a leader within policing and invests time coaching and mentoring people both regionally and nationally. This is something that she enjoys and considers to be vital to ensure good leaders thrive within policing and that we achieve a fully inclusive organisation.

As Chief Constable her force strategy includes Inclusion, tackling serious & organised crime, community engagement, wellbeing, preventative policing and protecting vulnerable people.

She has been the national lead for drones and Response Policing and is now Chair of the National Prevention Coordination Committee.

In July 2023 she was proud to be awarded a King’s Police medal in the Birthday Honours.  

Serena is married to Ian, a retired Police Officer and has three children and two grandchildren.

From mid-February to April 2025 Serena will be seconded to the College of Policing as Cohort Director for the Executive Leadership Programme.