A police chief and senior staff will walk 26 miles to celebrate the force’s 50th anniversary and raise money for charity.

Thames Valley Police (TVP) chief constable Francis Habgood and members of his office and senior management team will walk along the Thames Path tomorrow (Saturday), with the route taking them through the three TVP counties – Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

They will raise money for mental health charity Mind.

Chief constable Habgood said: “This is a great opportunity to recognise both our 50th anniversary and the work of Mind.

"Thames Valley is an incredible place to police and I love working here. We have over 2.3 million residents in our force area and about six million visitors.

“I have been in policing for more than 30 years and the rate of change has accelerated massively.

“Our core principles remain the same: protecting the public, preventing crime and disorder, investigating crime and bringing offenders to justice, however the landscape is now more complex and we need to make sure we continue to stay ahead of this challenge.

“I feel proud and privileged to be leading the service on this milestone anniversary.”

Thames Valley Constabulary was formed in 1968 when three county constabularies merged along with Reading Borough and Oxford City.

A change of name followed in 1970 making TVP the largest non-metropolitan force in the country.