New Shropshire police chief in pledge on crime
A new police chief for Shropshire today pledged to make the county “unattractive to criminals”.
Chief Superintendent Tom Harding said his priority was to put more officers on the beat.
He said he wanted to target burglary and fraud as well as protecting young people from exploitation.
Chief Supt Harding outlined his plans after taking up his new role as the county’s police commander.
The officer said the force had made significant inroads in tackling the ‘county lines’ drug networks by posting officers along key routes in the county.
“We have had real success in Oswestry by having officers on major routes linking the county to Liverpool and Manchester,” the 37-year-old said.
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“We have managed to disrupt those activities by interfering with key routes in and out of the city.”
Extra officers
He said the force would work closely with other organisations to spot the early signs of child sexual exploitation, which he said was often linked to other crimes.
Chief Supt Harding, who replaces Kevin Purcell who retired last month, said plans were already in place for the extra officers promised by the government.
“We have an additional 93 officers so far, and we are awaiting confirmation from the government about additional numbers going forward,” he said.
He said many of the officers would be deployed as part of the neighbourhood teams, and the plan was to have a more visible presence in town centres, adding: “We believe that is where we can do more problem solving – it makes more sense to resolve problems before they happen rather than deal with them afterwards.”
He said the force had also made a major breakthrough in tackling so-called ‘courier fraud’ with eight arrests in the county.
