A former student from inner-city Birmingham, who has risen to the rank of Commander in the Metropolitan Police, is among the outstanding former students who will be honoured at Birmingham City University’s forthcoming graduation ceremonies.
Makhdum (Mak) Ali Chishty graduated with an LLB (Hons) degree in 2004 and is being honoured as one of the University’s Alumni of the Year in the Excellence in the Community Engagement and Leadership category.
Born and raised in inner-city Birmingham, Mak fulfilled a longstanding ambition when he joined Warwickshire Police as an 18-year-old. He was quickly promoted to CID where he went on to hold a variety of senior positions, before moving back into uniform as Borough Commander for the town of Rugby, where he took a pioneering approach to community relations, involving the public in the drawing up of policing priorities, helping to build trust and support between the force and the communities it served.
Despite his achievements, Mak felt that he would benefit from gaining a greater insight into the history and theory behind crime and legal matters, and decided to return to his home city to study a part-time degree in Law at Birmingham City University. He attended two evenings a week in addition to working full-time on critical operational matters.
Upon completing his degree, Mak continued to attract plaudits, being awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in Her Majesty’s New Year’s Honours in 2009 for distinguished police service. He then successfully passed the Police National Assessment Centre in 2010 and attended the Strategic Command Course in 2011. His move to the Met followed shortly afterwards and he took up his challenging post as Commander for North London – including some areas affected by the 2011 Summer riots.
Mak said that he felt very proud to have served the community and helped to make people’s lives better and was delighted to have received recognition from his former university.
He said: “I feel proud that I have had the opportunity to make changes to help people and I’m driven by making a difference to people’s lives. I was absolutely shocked and delighted to be named as one of the Alumni of the Year – it came as a really nice surprise, especially since the honour comes from my home city.”
