Rotary Club of Banstead

David worked his way up through the police from a junior level, starting as a police cadet when he was 16 and joining the regular force on his 19th birthday.

He worked as a constable in Chelsea in the swinging 60’s in the days of the Doctor Who police boxes and was also studying at the Police Staff Training College. In the early 70’s he worked as a Sergeant in Wimbledon and Mitcham before joining Scotland Yard’s Research and Development branch where he rose to the rank of Inspector.

David was married and had two small children when he won a scholarship and went to study full time for a BSc in philosophy, psychology and sociology at Surrey University.

After completing his honours degree in 1983 he worked in the Croydon Division and then in an Area Planning and Evaluation Unit where he was involved in his first force restructure.

He was working as Chief Inspector at Kennington when he found himself in the centre of violent public disturbances during the 1985 Brixton riots and the riot at Broadwater Farm.

He also had to deal with the security of IRA prisoners. During these troubles David proved very capable organiser and administrator, (though this was not how he described himself).

He joined the New Scotland Yard Public Order Branch and soon became Staff Officer to Sir Peter Imbert, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.

David rose to be Chief Superintendent in 1990 and Head of MPS Equal Opportunities Unit in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence murder in April 1993.

During the October of 1993 Welling Riot David found himself at the head of the 35,000 marchers who were protesting against the National Front Office in Welling High Street, where he and the police force were attempting to prevent a confrontation between these marchers and the National Front demonstrators.

As a precautionary measure the police had removed all the street furniture which could be used as potential weapons and set up a barrier to divert the march towards open ground but there was the inevitable confrontation with the police.

After this David became Divisional Commander for Southwark, a notoriously bad area for murders and criminal activity before becoming Head of Operations South East and then Borough Commander for Bromley.

Following his official retirement from the police David was asked to work as the Programme Manager for the development and implementation of the MPS Corruption and Dishonesty Prevention Strategy.

This sensitive role was to require all his skills in trying to police illegal activities in the police force itself. The success of this work was to lead to his involvement with giving advice, guidance and assistance on counter corruption measures to police forces from other countries.

He specifically mentioned Romania and Jamaica, but was to receive a constant stream of visitors from all over the world to learn about the methods used to deal with corruption in police forces. David worked to further restructure the police force and was also involved in the Inquest following the London bombings in 2005. He continued in counter corruption and consultancy work but finally retired from all police work in August 2012.

Derek Aram, a retired prison governor, gave the vote of thanks and warmly congratulated David on giving an excellent presentation of his life and very successful career in the Police.

The Club, whose members come from many different walks of life (doctors, antique dealers, teachers, accountants, geologists, fire service etc.), gave David a round of enthusiastic applause.

He is a relatively new member of the Club and now the members know more about his life and work than they did before and realize they are fortunate to have such a capable member in their midst.

If you would like to know more about Rotary or come along to one of the Tuesday evening meetings, ring the Club Secretary, Derek Aram, on 01737-212397, and he will be pleased to speak to you.

Based on information supplied by Ian Caldwell.