New police chief has strong Aviemore links

A senior police officer who has spent a large part of her working career based in Aviemore has been appointed as the new area commander for Badenoch, Strathspey and Nairn.

Chief Inspector Mhairi Grant took on her new role on Monday having been involved in a number of key recent projects affecting Northern Constabulary in the strath and elsewhere in the region.

Her job on the force’s public contact project saw her steer the change to centralised call handling within Northern Constabulary, the introduction of Scotland’s new non-emergency number 101 and cuts to front counter hours in police stations.

She previously lived in Aviemore for 11 years and is delighted to be returning to her old patch.

Chief Inspector Grant said: "I am looking forward to moving back to the command area where I lived, worked and raised my family earlier in my career.

"I am looking forward to working with my new team and with the local community in Badenoch, Strathspey and Nairn.

"I have been fortunate enough to carry out a number of specialist and area command roles and the experience gained there I know will help me forge positive partnerships across the command area."

Chief Inspector Grant is married to a retired police officer and has two grown-up daughters.

She initially joined Northern Constabulary in 1978 as a cadet, before applying to the regular force as a PC the following year.

The position taken up by Chief Inspector Grant for Badenoch, Strathspey and Nairn had been lost in a recent Northern Constabulary restructuring. Aviemore-based Inspector Alasdair MacLeod still remains in his current position.

The new police chief’s career to date:

After three years service, Mrs Grant took a career break to have a family, before rejoining Northern Constabulary in 1991 as a PC in Aviemore and then a DC in the force’s child protection unit.

In 1999 she was promoted back to Aviemore as a uniformed sergeant before being promoted to the role of Area Inspector in Wick in 2003.

Between 2005 and 2006 she was seconded to the national inspection programme for child protection before transferring to Inverness headquarters in 2007 to take a detective inspector role in the public protection unit.

Two years later she became the force’s first female area commander when she took over the post in Orkney.

Chief Inspector Grant is currently Vice Chair of the National Scottish Women’s Development Forum.

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