Police chief: God shaped my career
Northern Ireland's chief constable claims that God had called him to the region's top policing job
Sunday March 14 2010
Northern Ireland's chief constable claims that God had called him to the region's top policing job.
Matt Baggott, who is a born-again Christian, said he felt his entire 33-year career in the police had been mapped out for him by a higher power.
In a candid interview about his deeply held beliefs, the 51-year-old father of three explained how much his faith had influenced he and his wife's joint decision that he should apply to take over from the outgoing Sir Hugh Orde last year.
"We came to a point in our lives round about the end of spring last year, beginning of summer where we both felt something was going to happen, we both have a very strong Christian belief," he said.
"I guess I would describe it as a calling, I don't mean that in an arrogant sense because there was an interview process and people had to make their judgments, but we felt very strongly pulled here."
He added: "My faith has been a determining factor in me coming here as chief constable."
The current president of the Christian Police Association said he had under gone a conversion experience when at a youth camp as a teenager in London that had changed his entire outlook on life.
Noting that his grandfather was a police officer, the former Leicestershire chief constable said it was God and not him that convinced him to join the Metropolitan police at 18.
"I have a very strong Christian faith where I have never planned anything in my 33 years of policing," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Seven Days programme.
