Rise of the workaholic who established Scotland's 'FBI'

Background: The move by Graeme Pearson, the head of Scotland�s crime fighting agency, to step down will surprise many.

Background

It was while travelling through the battlefields of Belgium and France that he made the decision to step down. For a man renowned for fighting his own battles and winning, it was the most appropriate of settings.

The move by Graeme Pearson, the head of Scotland's crime fighting agency, to step down will surprise many. Colleagues know him as a ambitious workaholic who is very good at getting the job done - no matter the opposition he faces.

His reputation for pushing through reform has made him as many enemies as admirers.

Even as a beat bobby with Strathclyde Police in the 1970s he pursued the bad guys, no matter the views of his seniors.

As sub-divisional commander in Airdrie in the early 1990s he pioneered the first police managed CCTV project - a scheme he pushed through to successfully address a local problem despite the many doubters who saw it as too radical.

In a 37-and-a-half-year career, Mr Pearson has risen to be director general of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA). Not only that, but in just three years there, he has dramatically enhanced the powers and profile of the agency itself.

Under the Police Bill, published last year, the agency's name expanded to include a remit to tackle all organised crime across the country and liaise with British agencies.

The SDEA, formed in 1999 to deal with money laundering, computer crime, witness protection and serious and organised crime, was created on an ad hoc basis and the director has always had to rely on the generosity of the chiefs of Scotland's eight forces for staff, firearms support and even to sanction surveillance.

Under the Police Act which came into force earlier this year, Mr Pearson ensured the agency will be able to authorise surveillance, operate its own emergency firearms, and recruit its own staff, in line with police powers.

At the time, Scotland's chief constables did not fully back the proposed reforms, concerned that more powers could upset the existing three-tier structure of executive, local police boards and chief constables.

However, the executive, faced with the changing face of international organised crime and terrorism, backed the calls for change.

The proposals in the act elevated Mr Pearson to a position equivalent to that of a chief constable. Within a service known for its traditions, such changes were more than controversial.

Mr Pearson also publicly called for Scotland's eight police forces to be merged into one, a proposal hardly likely to have courted friendship amongst the other chiefs.

He has also pushed through plans to create a £40m super-campus at Gartcosh, Lanarkshire, to unite Scotland's leading crime-fighting agencies, including the SCDEA, customs, immigration, forensics experts and procurators-fiscal.

Some senior officers have described him as an empire builder but none could question his dedication to the job.

He works long hours and at weekends. He has few hobbies apart from music and reading.

One senses that his wife, a secondary school teacher, and his 25-year-old daughter, also a teacher, do not see as much of him as they would like.

His passion for policing was forged when, as a 12-year-old, he witnessed a knife slashing in a Glasgow chip shop. Since then he has held complete disdain for bullies.

After he joined the police at 19, his rise was meteoric. By 21, he was in the CID. He progressed to the rank of assistant chief constable with Strathclyde before his move to the then SDEA in 2004.

As assistant chief constable in charge of crime at Strathclyde he pushed the profile of the new Proceeds of Crime Act to tell those who benefited from crime that he would, in no uncertain terms, go after them.

That is what he has done at the agency. The assets of some of Scotland's most notorious gangsters, including Jamie the Iceman' Stevenson, have been seized and/or frozen and unprecedented drugs seizures made.

In June, agency staff seized a total of 157kg of heroin with a street value of £12.5m - more than double the amount of Class A drugs seized by the agency in the whole of last year.

More recently, he has called for new legislation to scrap drug classifications and for the deportation of foreign-born British citizens who are convicted of serious and organised crimes. He has also overseen the launch of the agency's campaign to highlight the human rights abuses involved in the manufacture of illegal drugs.

Before the Police Bill became an act he admitted: "I can be difficult on occasion. Shrinking brashness, you might call it. It's not about turf and territory, it's about what works best."

Achieving what works best, no matter the battles to be fought on the way, will be his legacy.

Graeme Pearson

Born and raised in Partick, Glasgow. Joined Strathclyde Police in 1970 aged 19.

By 21, was in CID. After being promoted to inspector, graduated from Glasgow University with MA in social science in 1986.

In early 1990s, as a chief inspector in Airdrie, pioneered use of CCTV to deal with antisocial behaviour.

Made assistant chief constable of in October 1998, initially with responsibility for community safety portfolio, before being asked, in March 2000, to oversee force's crime portfolio.