A FORMER Navy officer who was born in Harwich Police station is hoping to be elected the county’s first ever Police and Crime Commissioner.

Nicholas Alston CBE has been selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the role, and he has strong family ties to the police force across the county.

His father, Kenneth Alston, was serving as a police officer in Harwich when he was born in the station in 1952, and Kenneth went on to become Deputy Chief Constable of the Essex and Southend-on-Sea Joint Constabulary before retiring in 1971.

Mr Alston was awarded a CBE in the 1997 New Year’s Honours List for services to Defence, and currently serves on the board of the Mid-Essex Hospitals NHS Trust and is also on the advisory Board of the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science at University College London.

The role of the commissioner will be to hold the chief constable and the force to account.