THE head of crime for North Yorkshire Police has praised the actions of his officers and is looking ahead to working with the public in the new year.

Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Mason said the force was prepared for the usual increase in certain types of offending that the festive season brings.

He said: “Policing is 365 days a year, 24/7 and we don’t have the luxury of closing Friday for a weekend refit or over Christmas, and nor should we.”

Looking to the new year, Det Supt Mason said the invaluable work being done between the force, partner agencies and the public would continue, with elements of their success already shown with fast-moving incidents – such as the hoax calls that led to armed police closing down Knaresborough town centre for several hours in September.

He said: “To use Knaresborough as an example – all of that community-based work our safer neighbourhood teams do takes weeks and months. PCSOs and safer neighbourhood teams, get to know their community so that they can sense when something’s different and that’s a fundamental part of community policing.

“When incidents happen we would call upon them to see what the community is feeling when something like this happens.

“Knaresborough was a fast moving job at the time and it’s back to the principle of threat risk and harm. If circumstances say there’s a credible threat at the time to the pubilc and we have to act to mitigate that credible threat.

“Because of the way it played out it looks quite dramatic. It’s something we’re capable of doing, but don’t do regularly in North Yorkshire – but it’s very much there if we need to do it.”

Det Supt Mason said although the force was still looking to save money, the hard work and dedication of officers could not be questioned.

He said: “I’ve never known anyone come to me and say we’ve too many people. Have I got enough to meet demands placed upon us? Yes, I have. Is there space for growth in the future? Yes, there is.”

He praised officers for their dedication on major incidents such as the murder in October in Phoenix Boulevard, York.

He said: “Officers are working up to 20 hours, then getting a small amount of sleep and coming back, such is their dedication and it needs to be like that because you can’t really pass those jobs on.

“I’m very proud of the people that we have. We’ve got a very, very strong team of people and my job is to make sure they are supported with the right equipment and skills to do it.

“There’s nothing better, in my opinion.”