Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton AM APM |
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22nd Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police | |
Assumed office 1 July 2015 |
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Preceded by | Ken Lay |
Personal details | |
Born |
Graham Leonard Ashton Aldgate, South Australia |
Occupation | Police officer |
Graham Leonard Ashton AM APM is an Australian police officer who is the current Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police. He has served in the Australian Federal Police for a long period.
Ashton was born in Aldgate, South Australia and lived there for a short time until his family moved to the Adelaide suburb of Dernancourt. When he turned 18, he left Adelaide and moved to Canberra to join the Australian Federal Police (AFP), and was later posted to the AFP's Melbourne and Brisbane offices. From 1995 to 1997, he served as the law enforcement liaison officer in Indonesia at the Australian embassy in Jakarta.
In 2002, he returned to Indonesia as operational commander of the Australian police component of Operation Alliance, the joint investigation and victim identification process following the 2002 Bali bombings. In 2003, whilst serving as national manager of counter-terrorism, he was awarded the Australian Police Medal and was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his work on Alliance.
In 2004, Ashton left the AFP and accepted a position at the newly formed Office of Police Integrity in Victoria. In 2009, he was made director of forensic services for Victoria Police, thereafter as Assistant Commissioner (Crime) and in 2012, Deputy Commissioner of Specialist Operations. In January 2015, he returned to the AFP as a deputy commissioner, but several months later was appointed as the chief commissioner of Victoria Police, replacing Ken Lay who had retired.