Joined the Metropolitan Police in 1985 where he served in the Homicide Command, Anti-Corruption Com-mand and later as the Staff Officer to London Gold for the 7/7 bombings and the attempted bombings in 2005. Mr Kavanagh has held a number of senior roles including Commander Counter Terrorism (SO15), Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Territorial Policing, where he was responsible for over 20,000 uniformed personnel and staff. He was selected for the role of Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations, New Scotland Yard, where he worked closely with the UK Home Office and other security partner bodies to transform the delivery of the ‘Protect and Prepare’ counter terrorism strands for London.
In 2013, Mr Kavanagh was appointed as the Chief Constable of his home county, Essex. There, he guided his Force through a period of austerity with a focus on unlocking workforce potential and transforming the operating culture and organizational IT infrastructure. His emphasis on collaborative partnerships across Es-sex County partners, central government and with his partner police force – Kent Police and the Essex Fire and Rescue Service – delivered savings and efficiencies whilst enhancing policing capabilities.
Mr Kavanagh has contributed to broader UK policing through his membership of different bodies and collab-oration with academia, government, industry and the charitable sector. He was the Chair of the Essex Crim-inal Justice Board, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Lead for Open Source Intelligence and the College of Policing’s Community Chair for Crime, Criminal Justice and Terrorism strands. He was instru-mental in the partnership launch of the Essex Centre for Data Analytics (ECDA).
As the first National Police Chief Council (NPCC) lead Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for the Digital Po-licing Portfolio, he was responsible for establishing new digital approaches for public contact, intelligence and investigations and developing partnerships with industry, international forces, Police ICT Company and Chief Constables’ Council.
In November 2018, he retired as Chief Constable and became the Senior Policing Advisor to Accenture’s Global Health and Public Safety Team. His particular focus was on ethics, artificial intelligence and data in the digital age, utilisation of technology to assist in the management of sex offenders and Virtual Reality (VR) training for policing.
In February 2020, he was appointed Executive Director for Police Services at INTERPOL, in charge of the 4 Global Crime programmes: Cybercrime, Counter Terrorism, Organized and Emerging Crime and Financial Crime & Anti-Corruption. He is recognized as the second highest-ranking staff official, after the Secretary General.
In 2002, Mr Kavanagh received a Master of Philosophy in Criminology, from Wolfson College, Cambridge.
In 2018, he was decorated with the Queen’s Policing Medal (QPM) for his distinguished service and contri-bution to policing in the United Kingdom, and was also invited to become Visiting Professor at the Institute for Analytics and Data Science at the University of Essex.
In 2019 he was appointed by the Lord Lieutenant of Essex, as a Deputy Lieutenant for the county. The same year, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law from Anglia Ruskin University.
