MERSEYSIDE’S new Chief Constable has taken up his post.

Jon Murphy became the sixth chief of Merseyside Police (as it became in 1974) and the first to rise right through the ranks from a cadet at 16 to become the man in the hot-seat.

The 51-year-old father-of-two was deputy to previous incumbent Bernard Hogan-Howe before leaving in 2007 to take up a post with the Association of Chief Police Officers.

He has spent 28 of his 33 serving years as an officer based on Merseyside, and on his first day told the Daily Post: “It’s business as usual”.

Mr Murphy began his day with a round of media interviews before hitting the streets of Wirral with patrols to reacclimatise himself with his “patch”.

Mr Murphy said: “ I took the chief officer’s Monday morning briefing, which I haven’t been at for more than 2½ years, and it felt like I have never been away.

“It was a nice feeling.

“I have spent nearly 30 years in this force and now I am surrounded once again by all the people and faces I know. Walking back into here was like coming home.

“It must be very difficult to go into a force as new chief being unfamiliar with the geography, the community, the people within the organisation and the politics.

“These things are all bread and butter to me, and that means I can get on with focusing on what needs to be done straight away, rather than having to build relationships and remember names and faces I have never met before.