New Chief Constable for Tayside Police

Tayside Joint Police Board is pleased to announce today (04/02/10) the appointment of Justine Curran (42) as the new Chief Constable of Tayside Police, making her the first female Chief Constable of the Force.

Justine joined Tayside Police in 2009 as Deputy Chief Constable and has been Acting Chief Constable of the Force since Kevin Mathieson retired in August 2009.

Born in Sheffield, Justine grew up in Lancashire before moving to Hull where she studied Classical Studies.

She joined Greater Manchester Police in 1989, where her first post was as a Constable in Wigan.  In 1991 she was promoted to Sergeant, and then to Inspector in 1995.  In 1998 she was promoted once again to Chief Inspector with responsibility for policing Manchester City Centre.  After a brief move to become a Superintendent at Merseyside Police, Justine returned to Greater Manchester Police in 2003 where she became Chief Superintendent and Divisional Commander for North Manchester Division. 

In 2007, Justine took up the post of Assistant Chief Constable at Greater Manchester Police and was responsible for the territorial policing of six divisions, including all policing activity, performance, personnel, finance and partnership.  She headed the Counter Terrorism Unit which was responsible for implementing the national strategy across the North West Region, and was also responsible for adopting a citizen focused approach to address Neighbourhood Policing.  Justine was the lead Chief Officer for public order policy, events, and football policing, and has become a nationally accredited Gold Advanced Public Order Commander.  She has led many high profile operations, including several counter terrorism operations.

Since joining Tayside Police in 2009 Justine has developed a stronger corporate framework and approach to governance that provides rigor, accountability and is clearly auditable.  She has introduced a new Force Leadership Team involving all senior leaders in the Force.  The team has since set the direction of the Force by way of setting out a clear vision and standards of service.

In order to take the Force forward Justine recognised the need to seek new and different ways to improve services.  She has been instrumental in setting up a partnership development with Abertay University in Dundee to bring innovative approaches and methods into Tayside Police.  One project is looking at developing computer programs that can search files and identify violent or abusive images which would automate and streamline what are currently time consuming evidence gathering processes.  Another project is looking at memory enhancement tools to assist in obtaining witness accounts of events.

Chief Constable Curran is a key contributor to the ACPOS Quality and Standards project group and is currently leading a team in the ACPOS Information Management business area.  She is also part of the Scottish Police Service team reviewing interoperability in relation to counter terrorism.

Councillor Ian Mackintosh, Convener of Tayside Joint Police Board, said that he was delighted that the Appointment Sub-Committee had unanimously agreed to offer the post of Chief Constable to Justine Curran.

He added,

"Justine comes to the post of Chief Constable with great experience and knowledge gained from her time with Merseyside Police, Greater Manchester Police and serving as Deputy Chief Constable at Tayside Police.  Since her arrival in Tayside, she has become an established member of the Force Executive.  She is an officer of outstanding ability who is passionate about the importance of engaging with the communities of Tayside and the Board and I look forward to working with her.  I am certain that in the role of Chief Constable she will prove to be a great asset to policing in Tayside."

Chief Constable Curran is expected to take up her post with immediate effect.

www.tayside.police.uk

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