Detective Superintendent Des Bray joined the South Australia Police in 1974 and after several years on uniform patrols became a detective in 1981. Des then worked as a detective for over 20 years in metropolitan and country criminal investigation branches and specialist criminal investigation squads, with a focus on violent crime, drug trafficking and organised crime. Following this Des was promoted to Detective Superintendent and served as the Officer in Charge of Commercial and Electronic Crime Branch, Drug Investigation Branch and Crime Gangs Task Force.
From 2003 – 2005 he was seconded to the Australian Crime Commission as the Operations Manager and responsible for leading and managing nationally significant organised crime investigations in both South Australia and the Northern Territory. Des is currently the Officer in Charge of the South Australia Police Major Crime Investigation Branch which has responsibility for the investigation of all murders and conspiracies to murder in the State of South Australia. In that role he has been responsible for leading the development and implementation of Operation Persist, a holistic strategy to deal with assessment, prioritization and investigation of all “cold case” homicides in South Australia.
