MARTIN Kemp may be gracing TV screens in a new cop series, but now Ipswich has its very own "serious and organised" police boss.But Chief Inspector Chris Mayhew, the new Sector Commander for Ipswich, today pledged not just to concentrate on headline crimes, and said nothing was too "everyday" for his officers to tackle.
MARTIN Kemp may be gracing TV screens in a new cop series, but now Ipswich has its very own "serious and organised" police boss.
But Chief Inspector Chris Mayhew, the new Sector Commander for Ipswich, today pledged not just to concentrate on headline crimes, and said nothing was too "everyday" for his officers to tackle.
Ch Insp Mayhew has taken over from Ch Insp John Fletcher, who now heads a team which is making sure Suffolk Police comply with new national intelligence network which it is believed will aid the detection of crime.
Ch Insp Mayhew has been working for Suffolk Police for 21 years - including as a detective sergeant in Felixstowe.
He led the Covert Operations Unit at Martlesham Headquarters for the past two years, and Operation Pace which cut distraction burglaries by more than 50 per cent in its first six months.
Speaking at his new desk today and back in uniform at Ipswich Police Station for the first time in 14 years, Ch Insp Mayhew revealed his background as a crime investigator.
He has worked is CID, including being based in Newmarket for a five-year secondment to the National Crime Squad.
The special unit investigates 'serious and organised' crime here and abroad – and is the inspiration behind the new 'serious and organised' TV drama series.
It was in this role that Ch Insp Mayhew led the hunt for animal rights activist Barry Horn who was jailed and hit national headlines for placing bombs in Bristol in 1996. Drug trafficking was another crime which Ch Insp Mayhew investigated.
He laughed off a comparison with Martin Kemp's TV character, but said: "I hope to be able to put my background as an investigator, to good use here."
He said a lot of good work was already underway, and said police work 'started and finished in the community.'
He said: "Getting people in the community to identify their own beat officer, is one of my main aims.
"I plan to put the resources into preventing, tackling, and detecting day-to-day offences which affect the lives of people in the community - burglaries, incidents of disorder, and criminal damage. We will never stop every incidence of disorder – nobody is crazy enough to think that, but I want people to feel safe in Ipswich. That's my whole focus and main thrust."
Weblinks:
www.nationalcrimesquad.police.uk
www.suffolkpolice.uk
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