Mark Thornton started his Policing career in 1987, when he joined the Special Constabulary with Northumbria Police and worked in the City Centre of Newcastle Upon Tyne. 

He joined Cleveland Police in 1989 and after spending his first few years patrolling the socially deprived area covered by the South Bank Station. He moved onto a Force Support Unit, where he had his first exposure to search, public order and associated duties. In 1995 he completed his Police Trainers course at Harrogate and then entered the Force Training Department in 1996. There his focus was on Probationer training for officers who had completed the first years of their probation. 

He was promoted to Sergeant in late 1997 and then went to work in a number of operational roles prior to being promoted to Inspector in 2003, undertaking roles in Response, Neighbourhood Policing and Community Safety. By 2005 Mark was heading up the Force’s Probationer Training Unit, at a time when IPLDP was at its peak for Cleveland Police, working in partnership with the University of Teesside. In 2009 Mark was promoted to Chief Inspector and in that rank undertook the roles of Chief Inspector Operations and Neighbourhood Policing in two separate Basic Command Units. 

In the summer of 2013 was promoted to the rank of Superintendent and posted to the Operations Command. From October of 2014 he held and oversaw the transition of this role, developing it into a collaborative post overseeing the following disciplines in both Cleveland and Durham; Firearms, Roads Policing, Dog Support and Operational Support Units. He also held strategic responsibility in areas of Public Order, CBRN and Search. Outside of these roles Mark was an accredited Firearms Silver Command holding this role for 10 years and was also a Post Incident Manager. An accredited Public Order Gold Commander having previously been a Silver Commander in this discipline, he was very operationally active, travelling to Tanzania to deliver Public Order Command Training to local Senior Police officers. 

In January 2017 his experience in working in a collaborative post were harnessed by Cleveland Police and he found himself undertaking the lead role in collaboration projects between the Force and Cleveland Fire Brigade. Then moving to his final posting as head of Learning and Development. 

Mark had been an Associate with the College of Policing for the 9 years (starting this relationship with a delivery to students in Abu Dhabi) and enjoyed the opportunity of working with colleagues from across the country on the Executive Skills Module of the Senior Leadership Program. 

In 2017 Mark started his own business in training delivery; this flourished quickly with his deliveries on a number of topics to students from the public, private and charitable sectors together with students on a variety of academic courses with leading Universities. During 2018 he extended his Continuous Professional Development through gaining qualifications in work place assessment together with professional coaching and mentoring. 

In 2019 he retired from Policing and has been able to dedicate more time and energy into his business and is reaping the rewards of continued success. Acton Chase Associate has seen him work with various Police Forces, Local Authorities and Charities. He has worked with two Universities and remains a member of an assessment board. He is the module lead (Managing Finance) for a Leadership Apprenticeship programme and facilitates many pre-retirement programmes to client groups for a large Financial Organisation. 

In 2020 his writing was published in an Introduction to Professional Policing” (1st Edition) A married man with two successful daughters, Mark enjoys exercise, the outdoors and the opportunity to socialise with friends and family