South Wales’ top cop spends last day on the beat

THE top officer in South Wales Police has spent his last day in the job patrolling the streets of Cardiff with his son.

Thirty-three years after he started as a beat officer in the Rhondda, Peter Vaughan is retiring from his role as chief constable of the force – a post he called the “the best job in the world”.

Aberfan-born Mr Vaughan started patrolling the streets of Ferndale and Maerdy in 1984. In 1990, he was accepted on to the Accelerated Promotion Scheme and rose through the ranks to become chief constable in 2010.

Mr Vaughan said he was determined to spend his last day on the job out on the streets, and he spent the day in Ely with his police officer son Scott.

He said: “Being Chief Constable of South Wales Police has been the best job in the world. When I became Chief Constable, put simply, my vision was for the force to become more connected with our communities, offer a better service to victims of crime and be the best in all we do!

“To say I’m proud of what the force has achieved since then would be a complete understatement. Despite the challenges of the Comprehensive Spending Review, South Wales Police has become one of the best-performing forces in the country. We’re now the most visible force, we’re consistently in the top five for victim satisfaction, we’re the best at detecting burglary and violence with injury, we’ve seen the lowest reduction in frontline officers and the list goes on.

“I know that I leave the force in extremely capable hands and in a very strong position. I believe Matt Jukes’ appointment as my successor is greatly reassuring and I am confident that he will succeed in taking this force from strength to strength.

“The past few weeks have been filled with goodbyes as I’ve travelled around the force to visit as many of my colleagues as possible to say a huge thank you. But before I said my final goodbye, there was one more thing I had to do. There could be no better way to end my policing career than as it had begun all those years ago – on the beat. Luckily for me, I was also able to do that with my son Scott on patrol in Ely, Cardiff.

“The job has changed beyond recognition since my early days. But the thing that always seems to stay the same is our commitment to keeping our communities safe. To have been part of that has been both an honour and a privilege.”