Peter Ryan (police commissioner)

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Peter James Ryan was the Commissioner of the New South Wales Police from 1996 until 2002.

Peter Ryan was recruited to the position from an international pool of applicants following the controversial Wood Royal Commission into Corruption of the NSW Police Service that ran from 1995 to 1997. Ryan was appointed by the state Labor government of Premier Bob Carr. Prior to coming to Australia, Ryan had risen rapidly to very senior roles in British police ranks with an enviable reputation of integrity, frankness and courage. His British career culminated as the Head of National Police Training.

The challenge he undertook in his new appointment could not be understated, with decades of a systemic culture to eliminate, modify or completely renew. He had both staunch supporters and staunch opponents, and at times the latter were appearing to win. It is generally accepted that he left the organisation in much better shape than it was when he first started. If nothing else, it was a tribute to his dogged tenacity.

Ryan has been awarded: Queens Police Medal (QPM), Officer Brother of the Order of St John (OBStJ),NSW Police Ministers Olympic Commendation, NSW Police Commissioners Olympic Citation and the Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal(For service in the UK Police Forces) . He has a Masters Degree in Science and an Honorary Doctorate in Law from Macquarie University Sydney.

The 2000 Sydney Olympics were held during Ryan's Commissionership and were a widely lauded success from a safety and security point of view. Ryan was to quit on acrimonious terms soon after. After leaving Sydney in 2002 he took up the key post of Principal Security Advisor to ATHOC (the Athens Olympic Games Organising Committee) and the Greek Government, and played a prominent role in the highly successful Athens Games. Following Greece he was engaged in a similar role in Doha, Qatar, for the Doha 2006 Asian Games.

With a lifetime career in policing and security in both frontline and policy roles, Ryan is commonly considered the world's foremost expert in Olympic Games and major event security, and is in demand as a keynote speaker, tutor, advisor and mentor. He works on sensitive security projects with national governments and is the security expert for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In his role with the IOC, Ryan advises governments preparing to stage future Games and has recently advised Turin 2006 and currently Beijing 2008. Ryan is an advisor to the Board of the Canadian Centre for Emergency Planning.

After a year based in Dubai, UAE, Ryan currently lives back in the UK. He is engaged in security consulting projects across the world while continuing his role with the IOC.

Ryan was largely spoken of in the Australian media and in 2003 a biography, Peter Ryan: The Inside Story, was written by Sydney author, Sue Williams. The book stayed on the bestseller list for many weeks.

Ryan, although separated, is still married to his second wife Adrienne Ryan, author of A Silent Love (2000), who had moved to Sydney with him upon his appointment as the New South Wales Police Commissioner. She has continued to live in the northern suburbs of Sydney with their two teenage daughters, Elizabeth and Georgina, and has gone on to become active in politics and was the mayor of the Ku-ring-gai Council a local council in the area in Sydney.