William Taylor CBE QPM (born 25 March 1947) is a retired British police officer.
He later joined the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as a Detective Constable and served at police stations in Central London until 1976, when, as a Detective Chief Inspector, he was transferred to the Community Relations Branch at Scotland Yard.
In 1980 he was promoted to Detective Chief Superintendent and became staff officer to Commissioner Sir David McNee.
In 1996 he was one of three contenders for the post of Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary,[5] but lost out to Ronnie Flanagan.
In 2003 he headed the Metropolitan Police inquiry into the collapse of the theft case against former royal butlers Paul Burrell and Harold Brown in 2002.