Starritt was born in Carrigans, a tiny village in the Laggan district of eastern County Donegal, Ireland, the son of a land auctioneer.
His family – staunch Ulster Presbyterians – later moved east to the small town of Magherafelt in County Londonderry following the Partition of Ireland.
He was Chief Superintendent commanding "C" Division at West End Central in the early 1960s and featured prominently in the 1964 public inquiry into one of his men, Detective Sergeant Harold Challenor, who continued to work despite having paranoid schizophrenia.
In 1975, he headed the inquiry into police corruption in Soho which led to the arrests of twelve officers, including two commanders and a chief superintendent.
In his autobiography, In the Office of Constable, Commissioner Sir Robert Mark wrote that Starritt deserved an "honoured place in Metropolitan Police history for putting an end to malpractice that had caused the force incalculable harm for many years".