Below follows a featured article from the RGP:

DCI Roy Perez has always had a professional interest in the most serious of crimes.  Indeed, for his Master’s degree, he wrote his dissertations on ‘Should Criminal  Profiling be Integral Part of Modern Day Policing?’ and Death Scene Investigations.  

In his spare time, however, he has two very different interests: 

‘When I’m not working, I like to watch TV documentaries about police investigations  although I’m not the slightest bit interested in fictional crime stories. On the rare  occasions when I get the chance to switch off from crime, my main hobby is building  scale models. I’m the founder of Gibraltar Scale Model Society and I specialise in  making models of armoured vehicles such as tanks, armoured personnel carriers  and self-propelled guns. I actually enter international competitions in which my  models are judged for their build quality and the standard of the paintwork.’ 

‘In terms of a career, I always wanted to follow in the footsteps of my late father,  Francis, and become an officer in the Royal Gibraltar Police,’ explained DCI Roy  Perez. ‘However, at the time when I was leaving school, only Government  employees were allowed to apply to the RGP.’ 

Denied of any way of realising his dream job, Roy left school with few qualifications  and found a job in the private sector where he worked for about 10 years until the  RGP’s recruitment policy was changed. Finally, in April 1999, he was able to join the  Recruit School and to achieve his ambition of becoming a police officer. 

‘Considering that I left school with hardly any academic qualifications, I am proud  that, in my RGP career, I have gained a Diploma in Criminology, a first degree in  Police Studies, my Master’s Degree in Policy, Policing and Leadership (from  Portsmouth University) and a Certificate in Terrorism Studies from the University of  Saint Andrews in Scotland.’ 

After four years on shift, he got his first taste of work in the Criminal Investigation  Department (CID) and quickly discovered that this was the area of work which was of  real interest to him and where he would be happiest.

Roy’s evident dedication and conscientiousness saw him moving up through the  ranks of Sergeant and Inspector until, in 2018, he was promoted to Detective Chief  Inspector of the Crime Division where, today, he is responsible for the Criminal  Investigation Department, Crime Scene Investigators, Drugs Squad, the Domestic  Abuse Team, the Safeguarding Team and the Offender Management Team. 

‘My biggest job in Crime Division was probably the Boschetti’s Steps killings of  March 2015,’ said Roy. ‘It was a case which turned out to be the largest murder  investigation in Gibraltar’s modern history. While he was suffering from paranoid  delusions, John Shannon had killed his partner Anarda De La Caridad Perez Friman,  and two children, one of them only six weeks old. He had then killed himself.’ 

In the last few years, Roy has been the Senior Investigating Officer dealing with  almost all Gibraltar’s major crimes and he continues to review various unsolved  cases going back many years. ‘My biggest regret is not yet being able to charge  someone for the death of the late Michael Montegriffo case,’ he added. 

Of course, there are some downsides to being a police officer in Gibraltar.  

‘My biggest bugbear is when, after my team has put a huge amount of work into a case, we don’t get the result we wanted. 

‘Another drawback of the job is that it can be difficult for me to switch off when I  come home in the evenings. I’m always conscious that I could be called out at any  time so it’s not always easy to relax. I find that my hobby of scale modelling is useful  to take my mind off everything connected with New Mole House. Of course, I also  enjoy spending time with my son who teaches locally and my daughter who has just  graduated from University.’ 

‘Despite being frequently called at all hours of the night, my wife has always given  me her full support. She says that she knew what police life would be like when she  married me.’ 

‘She is very aware that, ‘a good police officer doesn’t sleep well so that everyone  else can.’’