Jon Murphy has risen through the ranks of Merseyside Police and is regarded as an expert in serious and organised crime.

On Monday, he will bring his knowledge to Cayman, when he heads a specialist unit of UK crime-fighters in an attempt to crack the crime wave sweeping the Island.

Yesterday he told iNews: “I am going to offer whatever assistance I can at the Commissioner’s request.

“I am putting together a team of officers from the North West (of England) who have experience of dealing with gun crime and gang-related issues.”

Mr Murphy joined Merseyside Police – where both former Police Commissioner Stuart Kernohan and Deputy Commissioner Stephen Brougham served – in 1975.

He served in the Force up to the rank of Chief Superintendent when he left to join the National Crime Squad in 2001.

Six years later he returned to Merseyside as Deputy Chief Constable and was asked by the Home Secretary to lead the Ministerial Task Force – ‘Tackling Gangs Action Programme.’

In April 2008 he became a member of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) as the National Serious & Organised Crime Coordinator where he led on a programme of work set to deliver on work commissioned by the newly established Organised Crime Partnership Board.

In February 2010 Mr Murphy took up his current position as Chief Constable of Merseyside Police.

He read Law at Liverpool University and has a postgraduate Criminology Diploma from Cambridge.

Mr Murphy is no stranger to fighting crime on foreign shores having worked in the US with the FBI and other policing agencies.

He is the ACPO portfolio holder for both Serious and Organised Crime and Telephone Interception.

Commended on 14 occasions, he was awarded the Queens Police Medal in the 2007 Birthday Honours.

ACPO’s crime business area controls the direction and development of crime fighting across the country. The business area is divided into 11 portfolios, each headed by an ACPO officer, and includes forensic science, serious and organised crime, intelligence, drugs, violence and public protection, and financial crime. Each portfolio is subdivided into working groups, focusing on specific crimes.

For example, according to ACPO, the violence and public protection group focuses on such crimes as rape, domestic violence, knife crime, guns and gangs.