Sir Peter Martin Fahy (born 18 January 1959 in London, England) is a retired senior British

police officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...

. He was the Chief Constable of

Greater Manchester Police Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England. , Greater Manchester Police employed 6,866 police officers, 3,524 memb ...

(GMP), the United Kingdom's third largest police force. He retired from the police force on 23 October 2015 after serving for 34 years.

Early life and education

Fahy holds a degree in French and Spanish from the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hu ...

, and a master's degree from the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

Police career

He joined the police in 1981, and was the

ACPO The Association of Chief Police Officers of England, Wales and Northern Ireland (ACPO) was a not-for-profit private limited company that for many years led the development of policing practices in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Established ...

spokesman on workforce development. Before taking up this post at GMP on 1 September 2008, he was the Chief Constable of

Cheshire Constabulary Cheshire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial county of Cheshire in North West England, comprising the unitary authority, unitary authorities of Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Borough of ...

, a post he held since 2002. He had been Assistant Chief Constable at

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

and had had positions with

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

and West Midlands forces. Fahy has previously expressed his frustration at red tape which has been creeping into police forces across the United Kingdom. In July 2011, Fahy commanded his officers to use their common sense and criticised police policies which prevents the police from helping victims or protecting the public in certain cases. In July 2011, Fahy was one of the frontrunners to replace Sir Paul Stephenson as the Metropolitan Police Commissioner but Fahy ruled himself out of that position. In July 2013, it was announced that his contract had been extended for a further three years by the Greater Manchester Police Commissioner

Tony Lloyd Sir Anthony Joseph Lloyd (25 February 1950 – 17 January 2024) was a British Labour politician. He served as a member of Parliament (MP) for 36 years, making him one of the longest-serving MPs in recent history. He served as MP for Stretfo ...

. After 30 years service, Fahy was eligible for retirement, and his contract would have ended on 31 August 2013. Fahy was the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) lead of Specials Constabulary. In January 2014, the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...

announced that they would be prosecuting him under health and safety legislation over the death of Anthony Grainger. However, in January 2015, William Boyce QC, at Liverpool Crown Court accepted an ' abuse of process' argument from the defence.

Later life

In October 2015, Fahy was appointed an Honorary

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of Criminal Justice by the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. He gave his first

public lecture A public lecture (also known as an open lecture) is one means employed for educating the public. Gresham College, in London, has been providing free public lectures since its founding in 1597 through the will of Sir Thomas Gresham. The Royal S ...

on 11 November 2015. It was entitled; ''Thinking about police and public in a more divided world: reflections on 34 years of policing''. Peter Fahy became Chair of trustees of the charity We Stand Together in November 2017. He had originally established the #WeStandTogether campaign in response to the

Charlie Hebdo shooting On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. in Paris, Paris, France, the employees of the French satirical weekly magazine ''Charlie Hebdo'' were targeted in a terrorist shooting attack by two French-born Islam in Algeria, Algerian Muslim bro ...

and other attacks across Europe. We Stand Together was established as a charity in May 2018 in response to the Manchester Arena Attack. In March 2021, Fahy criticised the proposed

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (c. 32) is an Act of Parliament (UK), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was introduced by the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice. It gives more power to the police, criminal ...

, which he argued was a politically-motivated reaction to

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...

and

Extinction Rebellion Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a UK-founded global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and ...

protests.

Honours

Fahy was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the 2012 Birthday Honours 'for services to policing'.

Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal ribbon

Police Long Service and Good Conduct ribbon

* In 2018 he was awarded the

Honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...

(LL.D) from the

University of Chester The University of Chester is a public university located in Chester, England. The university originated as the first purpose-built teacher training college in the UK. As a university, it now occupies five campuses, campus sites in and around Ch ...

References

External links

Peter Fahy biography on GMP website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fahy, Peter 1959 births Living people People educated at St Bonaventure's Catholic School Alumni of the University of Hull Alumni of the University of East Anglia Chief Constables of Greater Manchester Police Knights Bachelor People from Cheshire English recipients of the Queen's Police Medal Chief Constables of Cheshire Constabulary