New inspector wants police to be accessible (From Chard & Ilminster News)

New inspector wants police to be accessible

5:58pm Wednesday 29th August 2007 in Chard By Steve Sowden

INSPECTOR Andrew Pritchard has only been in his new role for just over a week, but already he has a vision to make his new team of officers more accessible to the public.

He is the new head of the Somerton police sector, a wide area that includes Chard, Ilminster and Crewkerne, and has set himself key goals to meet in his fresh challenge.

"My vision is to make my officers more readily accessible to the community," he said. "The community has a great influence on what we as the police focus on.

"I see myself being here for a number of years and I want to drive ahead with the policing agenda of community involvement and accountability.

"I accept that the fear of crime often outweighs the reality of crime. This is a safe area, but I want to make people feel safe."

Insp Pritchard said he had three main objectives which he wanted to achieve in his new role - reducing crime, bringing offenders to justice more quickly, and updating victims of crime regularly about latest developments in their cases.

He started his policing career as a special constable in Wells in the late 1980s and then became a full-time police officer in 1996 where he walked the beat in the Hengrove area of Bristol.

He was then promoted to the rank of sergeant and moved to Frome where he quickly found policing in the small Somerset town very different to the city streets of Bristol.

"I went from running around hunting for criminals in Bristol, to getting sheep out of the middle of the road in Frome," he said.

He returned to his hometown of Wells in 2003 where he was a community sergeant before getting promoted again to inspector.

"I applied for the Somerton sector post and I'm delighted to be here," he said. "Although I will be based in Somerton I shall be frequently visiting the other areas of the sector such as Chard, Ilminster and Crewkerne."

Insp Pritchard said he would soon be having an assistant who will be a sergeant based at Crewkerne.

He said he was already impressed with the team of police community support officers at his disposal and was pleased that they were making a good impression with residents.