SCOTLAND’S new top cop has vowed to build a service the public can trust.
But as he was officially sworn in Phil Gormley also warned Police Scotland faces major financial challenges in the years ahead.
The former deputy head of the National Crime Agency succeeds Sir Stephen House on a bumper £212,280 salary.
House resigned in August after the force was rocked by a series of scandals.
Gormley confirmed he will use his first 100 days to get out and meet officers and staff across the country.
He also pledged to engage with local government leaders and key partners to hear their views of policing in Scotland first hand.
The Chief Constable officially took up the post following a brief ceremony at the Police Scotland College at Tulliallan, Clackmannanshire where he was sworn in by Sheriff Principal Marysia Lewis.
Afterwards Gormley said: “It is an honour to have been selected to lead Police Scotland and I am acutely aware of the significant responsibility and expectation that comes with the role of Chief Constable, Police Scotland.
“This is one of the most demanding jobs in British policing and I feel immensely proud to have been chosen to lead the men and women of Police Scotland through the next stage of its journey.”
Gormley, who has never worked in Scotland, inherits a force facing massive financial challenges.
Last month Audit Scotland warned of “significant issues” in Scottish police accounts, with a potential funding gap of £85m developing by 2018/19.
The new chief said: “Much has been achieved in the first few years of Police Scotland but there is still more to be done – and I recognise the importance the public and partners place on the level of service we provide.
“There is no doubt we are in a challenging financial environment – despite the savings already made, it is my responsibility working with colleagues to deliver the best service possible with the available resources.
“This will require difficult decisions but I am determined that we will develop a service the public trust and have confidence in and which our officers and staff are proud to provide.
“It will be vital that we work closely with all our partners to ensure that we make the best possible use of public resources to provide the service and protection that the people and communities of Scotland have a right to expect.”
Gormley met the next generation of Scotland’s 18,000 police officers on as he formally took up his post.
And he plans to meet many more during a tour that will take him from the Borders to the Highland and Islands.
Gormley added: “Over the next weeks and months, I will be talking and listening to, not only Police Scotland officers and staff but also our partners, to help inform how we respond to the challenges the service faces.
“The professional judgement and discretion of these officers and their colleagues across the country will be critical in meeting these challenges.”
Scottish Police Authority Chairman Andrew Flanagan also attended the ceremony.
He said: “The appointment by the SPA of Phil Gormley as Chief Constable of Police Scotland is a key part of the next phase of change for policing, and we welcome him taking up the reins this week.
“We have secured the best candidate to build on the progress that policing in Scotland has already made, and to address the issues and challenges that the service faces.”
House announced his resignation last August after 35 years as a police officer. He had been under severe pressure over the three days it took his officers to respond to a fatal crash on the M9.
John Yuill was pronounced dead at the scene but his partner Lamara Bell later died in hospital.
The force was also criticised over armed officers being put on routine patrol, its policies on stopping and searching juveniles and and the death of Sheku Bayoh, 31, in police custody.
In October a staff survey revealed a third of Police Scotland’s workforce intends to leave the organisation within the next three years.
It also suggested that only a quarter of police officers felt they had the resources needed to do their job properly.
And in November Police Scotland was described as “reckless” by a privacy watchdog that found it breached the law on intercepting communications five times to spy on journalists’ sources.
The scandal followed reports by our sister paper, the Sunday Mail, on the unsolved murder of Emma Caldwell in 2005.
Gormley was previously deputy director general of the NCA in London. The elite agenvy was set up in 2013 as the UK’s answer to the FBI, with a £500m budget and more than 4,000 staff.
Gormley joined claiming it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get involved in forming the new body.
But he later announced he was jumping ship after the agency became mired in a string of scandals.
In one case in 2014, they were labelled incompetent by an Old Bailey judge.
Wendy Joseph QC cleared the defendants in an alleged £40million fraud after blunders by officers that went “beyond negligence”.
The NCA also had to apologise after they took more than a year to pass on information from Canadian police about British paedophiles.
And the agency had to pay jailed tycoon Israel Perry £3m after he sued for compensation over attempts to seize his assets.
Gormley and his boss Keith Bristow announced they were leaving last year along with other senior management.
The new chief pipped Deputy Chief Constable Neil Richardson and Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingstone to the job.
Richardson, who was House’s number two, is expected to retire after completing a handover period.
But Livingstone, who was regarded as the favourite, has pledged his support to the new chief.
After graduating from the University of Gloucestershire in 1984, Gormley joined Thames Valley Police and worked his way up the ranks, becoming commander responsible for southern Oxfordshire in 1999.
He then earned a promotion with the Met as commander of specialist operations, dealing with firearms, aviation security and counterterrorism measures.
Gormley served as deputy chief constable in the West Midlands for three years before becoming chief constable of Norfolk Constabulary in March 2010.
He left that job for the NCA, where he stayed until applying for the Police Scotland post.
