Chief Constable David Whatton
David Whatton became the Chief Constable of Cheshire
Constabulary on 1st December 2008. He holds the national portfolio
for rape and serious sexual offending on behalf of the Association
of Chief Police Officers.
Prior to joining Cheshire Police, Mr Whatton was the Deputy
Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police.
He joined GMP from the West Midlands Police on promotion to
Assistant Chief Constable in December 2002 as Assistant Chief
Constable Resources. In April 2003 he became ACC Crime
Operations.
He joined the West Midlands Police in April 1983 and served in a
variety of uniformed and detective posts, including as a Detective
Inspector on the Regional and National Crime Squad. In 1998 he was
promoted to the rank of Superintendent 'leap frogging' the rank of
Chief Inspector.
He has an M.Sc in Public Sector Management and a Postgraduate
Diploma in Criminology.
Mr Whatton is married and has three teenage children. In his
spare time he enjoys walking, climbing and spending time with his
family.
Deputy Chief Constable Graeme Gerrard QPM
Graeme Gerrard has been a police officer since 1975. His police
career has been varied and has included periods in general
policing, training and criminal investigation.
In July 1998 he was appointed to the post of Assistant Chief
Constable and became Cheshire’s Deputy Chief Constable in April
2005.
Graeme is the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) lead
for burglary and CCTV. He is chairman of the ACPO Burglary
Reduction Working Group and is a member of the ACPO Acquisitive
Crime Board. He has been chairman of the ACPO Video/CCTV Working
Group for over 10 years and is chairman of the Video Analysis User
Group. He was co-author of the National CCTV Strategy published in
October 2007 and chairs the National CCTV Strategy Programme Board.
In November 2009 he was asked to chair the Olympic CCTV Project
Board.
Graeme acts as police spokesman on matters relating to CCTV and
has published a number of articles on the subject. He regularly
speaks at conferences and gives advice to foreign governments and
police on how CCTV is used by the police in the UK. His overseas
visits have included Canada, USA, Morocco, Singapore, Brazil and
India.
A graduate of the FBI National Academy in Washington, USA with
an Honours Degree in Politics and Economics from Manchester
University and a Masters Degree in Applied Criminology from
Cambridge University, Graeme is married with two children. He was
awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for distinguished service to
policing in June 2009.
Assistant Chief Constable Philip Thompson
Phil took on the role of Assistant Chief Constable on June 17,
2009. But he's already a familiar face around Cheshire
Constabulary, as he's spent more than 12 years as a senior Cheshire
officer.
Originally from Shropshire, Phil started at West Midlands
Police, where he worked in city divisions as a detective in all
ranks. He was a District Inspector in the Divisional Crime unit at
Wolverhampton, tackling criminal gangs, with some fantastic success
against organised crime.
Phil joined Cheshire as a Detective Chief Inspector on the then
newly-formed Congleton and Vale Royal division. In his first year,
he ran six major incident rooms. After a year, Phil moved to
Winsford Headquarters to become responsible for all the specialist
crime units.
He took on the role of Detective Superintendent in 2000, and
then became divisional commander at Warrington from 2001 to 2003,
before being appointed Eastern Basic Command unit Commander in
2005.
Later that year, Phil took on the role of Head of Crime. He was
then successful in the Police National Assessment Centre process in
2008, which made him eligible for the Strategic Command Course -
the gateway to a Chief Police Officer role.
One of Phil remits in his new role is diversity and he comes to
this with a huge amount of experience. He spent six years as a
Detective Sergeant in the Handsworth area of Birmingham, at the
time the most diverse community in the UK outside East London.
Phil is now responsible for the Investigation Portfolio within
Chief Officer group, which means anything connected to
investigations, from low-level crimes such as shoplifting, to the
most serious. He is also responsible for custody, roads, policing
and the focus on our communities.
Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Ian Wiggett
Ian Wiggett has been in the police since 1985 and is currently
the Temporary Assistant Chief Constable in Cheshire Constabulary.
As a member of the command team, he has responsibility for
‘Neighbourhoods’.
His responsibilities span local neighbourhood teams, incident
management and response, and specialist unformed functions across
the whole of the force area. He has served in Cheshire Constabulary
since 2003, where he has had responsibility for Intelligence, Area
Operations, and Strategic Development.
Prior to joining Cheshire, he worked in the Metropolitan Police,
serving mainly in West and South West London. He was the Crime
Manager for Merton, Spelthorne, and Kensington and Chelsea, before
heading Intelligence and Performance Development across the 32
London Boroughs.
Assistant Chief Officer Brian Simmons
Brian Simmons joined Cheshire Constabulary on 5 June 2000 as
Assistant Chief Officer. He is responsible for business services
including Finance, Human Resources, Business Change & IT,
Performance Development (including accommodation and procurement)
and Fleet Management.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management
Accountants and was a Senior Civil Servant for 10 years prior to
joining the Constabulary where he was the Director responsible for
the creation, relocation and ongoing management of a Government
Research Establishment.
He is also the ACPO lead for a fourteen force Forensic contract
consortium comprising the North West, South West and Wales forces
and the North West Regional ACPO lead for Procurement.