He was born to Cecil William Dear and Violet Mackney, and educated at
Fletton Grammar School in
Old Fletton, Huntingdonshire. He joined
Peterborough Combined Police (which became part of
Mid-Anglia Constabulary in 1965) as a
Cadet and became a
Constable in 1956. In 1965 he went to
University College, London, on a Bramshill Scholarship to study law. Graduating in 1968 and then serving as
divisional commander in
Cambridge, he was appointed
Assistant Chief Constable (Operations) of
Nottinghamshire Combined Constabulary (
Nottinghamshire Police from 1974) in 1972. From 1975 to 1977, he was seconded to
Bramshill Police College as Director of Command Training. In September 1979, he was awarded the
Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct for his arrest of an armed and "mentally deranged" man who had barricaded himself in a house with his infant son after a multiple shooting incident. In 1980 he transferred to the
Metropolitan Police as
Deputy Assistant Commissioner (Training). In this role he came to public attention as he instituted racial awareness training for police officers in the wake of the
Brixton riots, into which he also conducted an internal investigation. On 1 December 1981 he was appointed
Assistant Commissioner "D" (Personnel and Training). He was awarded the
Queen's Police Medal (QPM) in 1982 in recognition of his involvement post-riots in Brixton in 1981, in always difficult and sometimes dangerous circumstances, and headed the Met's investigation into the shooting of
Steven Waldorf in 1983. In 1984, he moved to become Assistant Commissioner "A" (Operations and Administration). In 1985, he left the Metropolitan Police to become
Chief Constable of
West Midlands Police. He was the last officer to hold the post of Assistant Commissioner "A" before it was abolished in the reorganisation later that year. In the West Midlands, he quickly came to the fore with his handling of the aftermath of the shooting by police of a young boy and, separately, the aftermath of the
1985 Handsworth riots. He instituted wide-ranging changes in that force, both administratively and operationally. In 1989, he headed the investigation into the
Hillsborough Stadium Disaster. He was widely expected to be appointed Chief Constable of the
Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1989, but the job went instead to
Hugh Annesley. Dear was Chief Constable during the last years of the
West Midlands Serious Crime Squad, as its malpractices and unsafe convictions came to light. He disbanded it in 1989 and instituted an investigation by the
West Yorkshire Police who found evidence of serious abuses but not enough to prosecute individual officers. A number of officers retired early or departed preventing internal disciplinary proceedings. Since the squad was shut down, over 60 convictions have been found to be unsafe and quashed. During the late 1980s, Professor Robert Reiner conducted the only in-depth review of the rank of chief constable, interviewing all 43 post-holders. Reiner selected Dear as his prime example of the modern chief constable, describing him as "someone who combines the intellectual mastery of professional management skills with the operational experience and street credibility to command the confidence of the troops and Public". He served as Chief Constable of the West Midlands until 1 April 1990, when he was appointed one of
HM Inspectors of Constabulary. The decision was criticised by the MP
Chris Mullin, given Dear's ultimate responsibility for the continuing failures of the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad. He was
knighted in the
1997 New Year Honours, shortly before his retirement. He was a member of the Glidewell review into the
Crown Prosecution Service from 1997 to 1998 and advised the Auld Review of the Criminal Courts process in 2002 and the Virdi Enquiry in 2003. == Peerage ==