Superintendent John Heaton    played by Daniel Flynn

First appearance    # 421 (22/06/06)    

Superintendent John Heaton was a man of integrity who stood by his principles. Before being stationed at Sun Hill, he was a DCI at the Specialist Crime Directorate. As well as being opinionated and direct, he was a charismatic and strong leader (others occasionally said he could be cold and arrogant) and a bit of a workaholic too. John was intent on taking charge and turning Sun Hill station around; he didn't believe results could be obtained with 'liberal policing'. He made an immediate impact bringing a new Zero Tolerance approach, because - to his mind - criminals had been getting away with it for far too long. Heaton believed that if you broke the law, you should expect the police to be coming after you – no matter what level you operated at.

Some of the relief had the cynical view that Heaton was just asserting his authority to secure some good arrest statistics and advance his own career. Heaton may have been stamping down his authority but, to his mind, it was to a good end - he was putting criminals through the justice system. He believed people could be prevented from becoming bigger offenders by being punished for the low-level crimes they'd committed. It soon became clear that Heaton wasn't afraid to get stuck in on the ground and work alongside his officers, whom he always backed to the hilt.

Heaton tended to keep his private life to himself - he was a family man at heart though, spending much of his time caring for his daughter with Down's Syndrome. However, a split from his wife resulted in a subsequent number of misguided affairs.

Heaton left Sun Hill to head up a specialist unit targeting human trafficking.