Peter Wright (police officer)

Peter Wright CBE (21 July 1929 - 17 September 2011) was the Chief Constable of the South Yorkshire Police force from 1983 to 1990. During that period members of the force he commanded clashed with striking miners during the UK miners' strike (1984-1985) and were responsible for the Hillsborough football ground in Sheffield on 15 April 1989 when the Hillsborough disaster occurred, where 96 fans were killed.

Biography

He was born in Stockport, Cheshire and attended Edgeley Roman Catholic School and Stockport Technical School. He then served as rating in the Royal Navy for two years before joining Manchester Police in 1954. By 1975 he had reached the rank of Chief Superintendent in the Greater Manchester Police. In 1979 he was appointed Deputy Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, serving in that role during the 1981 Toxteth riots in Liverpool.

He was president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and put his name to the still extant 'Wright Protocol' that Chief Constables should agree to any policy promoted by the ACPO unless they dissent in writing, detailing their objections. He also served on the Parole Review Committee from 1987-1989. From 1991 to 1994 he was an adviser to the Ministry of Defence Police.^[1][2]

Hillsborough Independent Panel

An independent panel with access to previously unreleased papers related to the Hillsborough Disaster reported in September 2012 that Chief Constable Wright was instrumental in an effort to ensure that the South Yorkshire Police Force was not blamed for it.^[3]

The Coroner's Inquest, which reported in April 2016, found that Wright was "instrumental in the effort to ensure the [South Yorkshire] force was not blamed for the tragedy", "amending" contemporary accounts that criticised the police, and attempting to ensure that "drunken ticketless individuals" were blamed, not the police.^[4]

References