David Whatton was appointed as Chief Constable of Cheshire Constabulary on 23rd October 2008 and took up his role on 1st December 2008.

Prior to his appointment he was Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police. He joined GMP from the West Midlands Police on promotion to Assistant Chief Constable in December 2002 as ACC Resources. In April 2003 he became ACC Crime Operations with portfolio responsibilities for the Criminal Investigation Division, Special Branch and Scientific Services.

On joining the West Midlands Police in April 1983, shortly after leaving school, he attended initial Police training at Ryton on Dunsmoore achieving the award for 'Best All Round Student'. Between 1992 and 1996, as a Sergeant and Inspector, he attended the Accelerated Promotion Course.

Graduated from the University of Aston, Aston Business School in 1996 as Master of Science in Public Sector Management (Distinction).

In 2002 he was awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Criminology by Cambridge University, Institute of Criminology.

As a uniformed officer and detective he served in Birmingham, Sandwell and Wolverhampton before a secondment to the Regional Crime Squad and National Crime Squad as a Detective Inspector.

In 1998 he was successful in gaining promotion from Detective Inspector to Superintendent, 'leap frogging' the rank of Chief Inspector. Later, worked as an Operations Superintendent in Walsall and Chief Superintendent, Divisional Commander, in Sutton Coldfield.

Within Greater Manchester, Mr Whatton led a number of high profile criminal and terrorist related investigations and is a member of the ACPO Terrorism and Allied Matters business area. He has a keen interest in this area of work.

In his role as Deputy Chief Constable he was responsible for Corporate Development, Corporate Communications and Finance. He made a significant contribution to reducing crime and bringing more offenders to justice.

Mr Whatton is married and has three children who are all very active and when not at work is usually involved in taking them to a sporting or musical event, or 'moonlighting' from work helping his children with their paper rounds.