James Hart (police commissioner)
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James Maurice Hart, CBE, QPM, was Commissioner of the City of London Police between June 2002 and June 2006. In this role, he worked closely with the Chairman of the Police Committee, Alderman Simon Walsh, and chaired the Force's senior decision-making forum, the Strategic Management Board (SMB).
[edit] Recent Events
On 10 August 2005, Hart made worldwide headlines by suggesting that a terrorist strike against the financial district in the City of London was inevitable [1]. Although Hart told the Associated Press that he did not have knowledge of specific attacks being planned, his officers had previously disrupted target surveillance. When asked whether it was a matter of when, rather than if, the financial district would be struck, he replied, "Yes, I don't doubt that at all."
[edit] Career
Since 1998 serving as Assistant Commissioner and Deputy to the Commissioner for the City of London Police, he initially held the post of operational head of the Force. He then went onto to lead the support services portfolio. His previous police service was with the Surrey and Metropolitan Police Services, and included extensive and varied operational experience in senior posts at Heathrow Airport and Notting Hill, with divisional command positions at Wandsworth and the Diplomatic Protection Group.
At a strategic level he headed the Commissioner's Policy Unit at New Scotland Yard, and was a member of a small team of senior staff implementing a major restructuring of the Metropolitan Police. He was the national co-ordinator of the Operational Policing Review, published in 1990.
As Assistant Chief Constable of the Surrey Police, he initially held the support services portfolio, with responsibility for human resources, finance, information technology and administration of justice. Responsibility for both general and specialist operational matters followed, including management of the territorial divisions, and overall responsibility for partnership activities - working with statutory and voluntary agencies within the County to enhance community safety and crime reduction. His specialist operations role included responsibility for all serious and organised crime investigations, mobile and operational support, forensic science and major incident and emergency response.
He attended the Joint Services Defence Course at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and the Senior Command Course at the Police Staff College, Bramshill. He holds a BSc(Hons) degree in Systems Science and Management, and a PhD, both from the City University, London. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, Chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers' (ACPO) Economic Crime Portfolio. He was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours list.
