Today we launch a series of profiles of leading figures in the Chester community, beginning with Peter Fahy. Chief reporter David Holmes talks to the Chief Constable of Cheshire about his working class background, his university education and what attracted him to law enforcement.

Cheshire Chief Constable Peter Fahy was raised in a council house in the East End of London with mates who were 'into stealing cars'.

But Mr Fahy, determined to make something of his life, refused to be drawn into this criminal world.

'Mum and dad were quite strict. I'm Catholic. It was obviously an Irish Catholic upbringing as well,' said the Chief, whose mum is a school dinner lady and whose father was an Irish navvy.

He recalled a stabbing at his school long before the issue had developed into today's moral panic and said some of his fellow pupils went down a rocky road.

'Some of them did well, like I did well, and others went down the criminal path. I know one ended up being convicted of murder.

'Like a lot of people you can see how you could have gone down a different route. I think I had some particularly gifted teachers who got me interested in modern languages.'

Mr Fahy, who has a brother, studied Spanish and French at Hull University but a career in the police force was never far from his mind. 'I had already had some dealings with a police officer who was just a very traditional bobby on the beat and who ran a

local youth club and from that I got interested in the police as a career.'

With a wry smile, Mr Fahy recalled a visit by a police recruitment officer who commented on Mr Fahy's environment.

'Later on I got see my personal file,' he said. 'In those days they did home visits and there was a report from a police sergeant who said: 'There a number of active criminals who live in the vicinity but no evidence the subject associates with any of them'.'

Mr Fahy risked being branded 'a swot' or 'a goody-two-shoes' by his peers.

'There was bit of that, but that was life in the East End,' he said.

After leaving Hull University, Mr Fahy decided to be an accountant, but it didn't work out.

'I stuck it for three months - I hated working in an office. I'd better not say it's a cynical profession because some of accountants might not be very happy!' he joked.

'I didn't see much purpose behind it and after three months realised I had made the wrong decision.'

Nowadays Mr Fahy's French is 'a bit rusty' but he considers himself fluent in Spanish.

He considers himself fortunate to have studied languages - learning about other cultures has broadened his outlook.

'I was just very lucky. We've got to be careful as police we don't talk politics, but it was a very traditional Labour council so in the sixth form if you were doing languages they gave you free travel to Spain.

'When I was in the sixth form I was sent on a four week language course in the summer holidays. For a lad who had never left the East End that was incredible. It's that sort of thing which lifts your horizons. You start meeting people from different countries and then you're off.'

In 1989 Mr Fahy lived with a family in Argentina for six weeks as part of an exchange and worked with the local police force.

'It's a shame that fewer kids are studying languages because it does very much open up.. . you can visit a country as a tourist but it's never get the same as when you go and live with a family.'

Mr Fahy's humble beginnings gave him an understanding how crime disproportionately affects the poor, who are already disadvantaged because of their social and economic circumstances.

'Policing is very much a vocation,' said the married father-of-four. ' It may be looked at very differently from other people as being almost a power kick.

'Certainly, policing in other parts of the world isn't a particularly honourable profession. But I think for a lot of people, people who joined the police in this country, it is about a very strong sense of social justice. It is the fact that behind the disorder it particularly affects people who are already socially deprived.'

Family 'keeps me in touch with real world'

Young people often get criticised for their behaviour while hanging around on street corners but the chief constable can see it from their side.

Peter Fahy, a father-of-four, said: 'I'm very lucky to have a very supportive family. I've got four children, two at university, two are in local school, and it's brilliant

really that they keep me in touch with the real world in terms of life today as a teenager.

'Young people do feel at the moment that they are constantly criticised and stereotyped by the media that they are all yobs.'

And because of his role, Mr Fahy feels he probably has a more measured view in terms of the worries any parent has with respect to violence and drugs. I think I've got a better picture in that I know what the real threat is out there in terms of violence and stuff like that. And that's about it not being as threatening as people might think.

Having said that his family's only real experience of crime involved one of his children.

'The only time was my son got mugged for his bike. He was punched in the head and had his bike taken off him. That was quite upsetting.'

Mr Fahy said parenting was a difficult and complex role but his philosophy appears similar to that laid down by his own parents in the East End. 'Hopefully you set some fairly clear values for your children,' he commented.

This is not a battle between good and evil, we learn that

Peter Fahy's background informs his liberal view of policing.

Controversially, he believes that support for the perpetrators is a more effective way of persuading them to 'go straight' compared with prison which doesn't work 'in most cases'.

He explained: 'It's quite clear that dangerous people need to be locked up and need to be locked up for a long time to protect the public.

'It's also important that criminal justice is about giving justice to victims. One of the most interesting statistics is about the reading age of the prison population, the fact that the biggest problem in prisons tends to be illiteracy.

'I certainly say to my recruits if you think this is some sort of great battle between good and evil, forget it, because you very quickly learn that it's not.

'It's about largely dealing with fairly inadequate people who have problems with their relationships, who have problems with drug taking, alcohol abuse, all these sorts of things.

'Quite a number would desperately love to get out of it and they do try and get out of it but they never succeed because the support mechanisms and whatever are not around them.

'And we do meet some very evil people, but the vast majority are a group of people who have just com-

pletely messed up their lives. They mess up their relationships, they make promises they can't keep, they constantly come out of prison probably with the intention that they will try and go straight this time, but their lifestyle sucks them back in. So it's very rarely this sort of very neat black and white, good and evil thing.'

Mr Fahy says his approach is intensive and expensive but it can be effective.

'We do things now like we go with the probation service to see the prisoners in prison before they come out to say here's a bargain, there's an option.

'You can either continue your offending and we will be working very hard to try and get you back into prison as quickly as possible or here's another offer which is daily drug testing, here's help with education, accommodation, getting a new job, that sort of thing.

'That's a new type of policing but it can be very effective in reducing burglary but it's a very expensive way, it's very intensive. These are people who have never had to organise their lives. So prison is almost an easy option because you are back on dependency. You've got somebody running your life for you.

'The best thing you can do is force them to confront particularly their drug or their alcohol addiction. A lot of people are trapped in fairly abusive relationships. They constantly meet new people but ruin that relationship again and then typically you find they become fairly violent.'