St Albans has a new Chief Inspector heading district's policing teams.

CI Mike Todd takes over from CI Lynda Coates after acting as Herts police's silver commander for Operation Bullrush, the planning and tactical delivery of Hertfordshire’s operational policing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the St Albans District Chief Inspector, he leads approximately 150 officers and staff. He said: “I’m delighted to take on this role in St Albans.

"I will continue to build upon the excellent work to date, with a greater shift from reactive to proactive policing. I will work collaboratively with our community and partners to prevent harm, prevent crime and prevent reoffending - ensuring St Albans district remains a safe place to live, work and visit.

“I am already incredibly impressed with the dedication of officers and staff who work across St Albans, Harpenden and London Colney.”

CI Todd brings with him almost three decades of policing experience in varied roles across the county, predominantly in front-line operational roles.

CI Coates, who was in post for two and a half years, said: “I’m sad to be leaving St Albans. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working here. I cannot fault the dedication of officers who have worked under very difficult circumstances during the pandemic, putting their own lives at risk, to help others.

"We have built up fantastic relationships with our partners to deal with short and longer-term issues across the district and I am especially pleased that after a long investigation, we were able to get people arrested and charged for the series of violent crime in Clarence Park and London Colney.”

On taking up his new post, CI Todd said: “I am really keen to work in partnership with our community. One of the ways you can help reduce crime is to act upon the crime prevention advice in our OWL (Online Watch Link) email messages - log on to owl.co.uk/herts to join and find out more. We also have great Facebook and Twitter accounts in St Albans with daily messages about what we are doing – please follow us @StAlbansPolice."

You can report crime information online via herts.police.uk/report, or by online web at herts.police.uk/contact. You can also call the non-emergency number 101, or submit an anonymous online form via Crimestoppers.