Gary Barnett Deputy Chief Constable Durham Constabulary

Born in York, Gary Barnett attended St. Peter's School York until 1975. He then read psychology at Lancaster University, graduating in 1978.
Joining North Yorkshire Police in November 1978 as a constable at Harrogate, on passing his Sergeant's examination he was selected for the Special Course and accelerated promotion. He served at Ripon and in various roles as an Inspector at Scarborough, including the policing of the Young Conservatives Conference in 1991, immediately following the IRA mortar attack on Whitehall.
He then served as the Chief Constable's staff officer for 5 months before being promoted to run Community Affairs for the force. He undertook this Operational role at Harrogate for 2 years before, returning to HQ to develop project & programme management in North Yorkshire serving 6 months as the Head of Corporate Development.
Upon acting as Family Liaison Co-Ordinator at the Dunkeswick Air Crash in 1995 he was invited to join the national Major Disaster Advisory Team (MDAT) as a practitioner in this role.
Returning to his home city of York in 1997 as Superintendent (Operations), he was made Area Commander for York and Selby in 1999. Gary was honoured to be the Police Commander of York City during the Millennium celebrations. The task became a testing one during the flooding in November 2000, which threatened the City for two weeks, coming within 2 inches of breaching the City's 18 feet tall flood defences. In February 2001, he was as Silver Commander following the train crash at Great Heck, near Selby. Attending a Strategic Command Course in 2002 he returned to North Yorkshire implementing a policing review in his Area command and planned a major re-organisation during his last 6 months with the force.
Joining Durham on 1st October 2003 as Assistant Chief Constable he became Deputy Chief Constable on 12th December 2005 responsible for Corporate Development, Professional Standards & Legal Services, Administration of Justice and Information Department.