YORK and Selby have a new top cop in charge of operations.

Superintendent Steve Tarn has taken over from Superintendent Martin Deacon as the new operations commander for North Yorkshire Police's central area, which covers York and Selby.

As operations commander he will be based at the city's Fulford Road police station and will take responsibility for things like neighbourhood and response policing, problem solving and co-ordinating major events, such as football matches.

He said: "I'm very, very pleased to be here because I really do think it's an exciting place to live and work. I've come here and joined the senior management team.

"I bring experience from different roles across the force, having served in uniform and CID in Scarborough, as a sergeant and acting inspector at York and in intelligence at HQ.

"I know the area and most of the police officers that work here and some of the community groups. My plan is to get to know more of them through the neighbourhood policing teams, and get to know the concerns of the communities and make sure they are addressed, so the communities will see more police activity.

"There will also be a very strong pro-active approach to offenders, so they will also see more of us as well."

Superintendent Tarn previously worked as operations commander for the force's western area, which covers Harrogate, Skipton and Richmond. He was appointed to that role in March 2004, and was praised for his involvement in Operation Delivery - a major force-wide crackdown on all kinds of criminal behaviour, which led to a major increase in the number of arrests.

Prior to working in the western area he was the detective inspector in charge of the eastern area, covering Ryedale, Hambleton and Scarborough from 1999, and before that he worked as a detective at Scarborough CID.

Chief Inspector Ken McIntosh has also taken over from Chief Inspector Alison Leslie at Fulford Road. She has moved to a new role at police headquarters at Newby Wiske.