Neil Paterson is the Assistant Commissioner for the Intelligence & Covert Support Command in Victoria Police.

Neil has had a diverse career with Victoria Police commencing as a Constable in 1988. He gained broad operational policing skills whilst at Collingwood and Northcote Police Stations and quickly identified that he enjoyed undertaking complex investigations.

This saw him take on the role of Detective Senior Constable at the Sunshine CIB, in Melbourne’s Western suburbs in 1994. Sunshine was one of the busiest CIB’s in the state and gave Neil a solid grounding in the investigation of many serious and complex crimes.

Neil transferred to the Homicide Squad in 1988 and was the lead investigator in a number of complex homicide investigations which relied upon surveillance devices and telephone intercepts to gather evidence. One of his significant achievements was to solve a homicide which had commenced in the 1980’s as a missing person’s investigation. He was able to locate the deceased and charge three offenders in connection with the death.

Neil took promotion to the rank of Sergeant in 1999 at St. Kilda Police Station. After 2 years Neil sought a ‘tree change’ and moved to country Victoria where he was the Sergeant in Charge at the Neerim South Police Station.

In 2003 Neil returned to Melbourne and was promoted to Detective Sergeant at the Arson Squad and subsequently to Senior Sergeant at the Commonwealth Games Planning Office For Official Use Only in 2004. In this role Neil had responsibility for security planning for the Athlete’s Village and also took on operational responsibility during the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

As Inspector in charge of the Legal Policy Unit in 2006 Neil oversaw the development of legislation with government. After two years in that role Neil commenced as the Local Area Commander for the Kingston Police Service Area delivering services to the community through his management of four 24 hour police stations and 250 staff.

In 2009 Neil was promoted to Superintendent initially at the Road Policing Enforcement Division then in 2010 he commenced as the Detective Superintendent at the State Intelligence Division. During this time Neil oversaw a successful bid to Government to fund the Sex Offender Registry, delivered enhanced capability through the development of the Security and Organised Crime Intelligence Unit, created the Sporting Integrity Intelligence and the Prisons Intelligence Unit’s and delivered the new Victoria Police Intelligence Doctrine.

After 3 years at SID Neil became the Divisional Commander of the Frankston Division encompassing the Frankston and Mornington Peninsula Councils. He reformed their tasking and coordination model and built a joint-agency case management system. For the financial year 2014/15, Neil delivered the largest decrease in total crime of any Division in the State.

In July 2015 Neil commenced as the Chief of Staff to new Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton before taking promotion to his current role in November 2015.

Neil currently holds a Juris Doctor (Master of Laws), a Graduate Certificate in Applied Management, a Graduate Diploma in Disaster Management and a Diploma in Frontline Management. He is a father to four daughters and enjoys travel, snow skiing and is an amateur wine enthusiast