A FORMER pupil of Grantown Grammar School who opted to join the police over the possibility of a career in top-flight football has just been promoted to a high-ranking job in Northern Constabulary.
Supt Stevie Mackay (45) has been appointed as the new Divisional Commander for East Division, which covers Inverness, Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey.
Supt Mackay, who grew up in Craigmore Crescent, Nethy Bridge, joined Celtic FC when he left the Strathspey secondary school.
But after several seasons in the youth ranks of the Glasgow giants, he decided to head north again and become a police officer.
He went on to play for Inverness Thistle and Brora in the Highland League when his job allowed him to.
He has spent most of his time on the islands and in Inverness, and this will be the first occasion in his career with Northern Constabulary that he will have a connection with his home area.
Supt Mackay said: People still ask me, even though I am now 45 years old, whether I still play football! The answer is no, although I am still active and I like to keep fit.
What could have been in football is in the past, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the 26 years that I have now had in the police.
The senior officer, son of the late George Mackay, is also an occasional visitor to Grantown Golf Club, and was also a pupil at Abernethy Primary School.
I am really looking forward to this new position and working in an area which is one of the most beautiful and safest places to live and work in the UK, he said.
I look forward to working closely with community councils, partner organisations and the public to ensure that we see a continued reduction in crime in this area.
I see public support being a key stength in the division, and we have seen an increase in the level of information that comes in from the public, such as reports of drink-driving and suspicious activity.
Supt Mackay joined Northern Constabulary in June, 1985 and initially served in the Western Isles in Stornoway and Lochmaddy.
He was the senior investigation officer on the Danielle Reid case in Inverness in early 2003, which led to the successful conviction of her mother, Tracy, and her partner, Lee Gaytor.
Reid was jailed for eight years in 2003 after helping to dispose of the body of five-year-old Danielle in the Caledonian Canal the previous year.
It emerged last year that Reid had moved to Edinburgh after being released from prison. Danielle was murdered by Gaytor.
The new Chief Constable of Northern Constabulary, George Graham, started his job yesterday (Tuesday), and Andy Cowie, formerly a sergeant in Aviemore, will begin next month as the forces Deputy Chief Constable.
