JOHN VINE’S tenure as chief constable of Tayside has seen him co-ordinate the biggest policing operation the region has ever seen, but has not been without its controversies, write Lee McKelvie and Stefan Morkis.

Mr Vine, who enjoyed a high public profile, arrived in Tayside as a 45-year-old with a remarkable record of rapid promotion through the ranks.

Born in Leeds, he embarked on a career in law, graduating from what is now Staffordshire University.

He soon decided he preferred streets to courts and joined the police after graduation.

He started out as a beat bobby in Bradford in March 1981, before spending three years as a sergeant in Halifax, then another three as an inspector in busy areas of Bradford as his rise in the ranks continued.

Mr Vine was then promoted to chief inspector and became ground commander of 60 officers at Leeds United’s Elland Road football stadium. In 1985 he was involved in the team which developed the CRISIS system of identification in the wake of the tragic fire at Bradford City’s ground, in which 56 died.

Keeping up the remarkable record of being promoted every third year of service, he crossed the “culture divide” from Yorkshire to Lancashire Constabulary as assistant chief constable to Britain’s first female chief constable Pauline Clare in 1996.

While in Lancashire he oversaw the reduction of its policing divisions from 14 to six and took forward pioneering initiatives on drugs, becoming one of the few senior police officers in the UK to hold the chair of a drug action team.

He was appointed Tayside Police chief constable in November 2000, succeeding Bill Spence, and took up his post the following year.

During his time in Tayside he was responsible for policing the G8 Summit at Gleneagles Hotel in 2005.

The policing operation—protecting world leaders such as Tony Blair and George W Bush—and controlling protests outside the hotel, earned plaudits for Tayside from across the globe.

The success of G8, from a police perspective, and his long career resulted in Mr Vine being awarded the CBE for services to policing in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2007.

Mr Vine has also served as president of the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland and was a chief constable representative on the board of the Scottish Police Services Authority.

However his time at the helm of Tayside Police has not been without controversy.

Of the £72 million of taxpayers’ money spent policing G8, £11,000 was spent on new double-glazing for his Perthshire home—despite it being 20 miles from Gleneagles and any anti-G8 protests.

Tayside Police Joint Board approved the new windows after an anti-terrorism security advisor had recommended installing them.

A year after the details of his new windows emerged, it was revealed he had spent thousands on the Tayside Police corporate credit card.

He ran up a £6200 bill, mainly on hotels and food, half of it while attending a conference for the International Association of Police Chiefs in Miami in 2006.

Mr Vine has also used his position to comment on wider political issues, such as the death penalty and drug abuse.

Last year he said new measures to tackle hard drugs had to be looked at.

Mr Vine said enforcement alone would not help reduce the amount of addicts in Scotland and that there should be a debate on whether or not prescribing drugs like heroin may reduce the amount of crime association with addiction.

Mr Vine is married to Christine and the couple have three children.