Superintendent Vicky Skeels, the new police commander for Cambridge city

THE NEW police commander for Cambridge has warned the police will need to be “clever with resources” in a “testing” year ahead.

Superintendent Vicky Skeels, who has taken over from Chief Superintendent Rob Needle, who resigned in December, is heading up the city’s policing team and will oversee a restructuring of the force come April. She acknowledges the police face a challenge to ensure their work is not affected by the need for savings.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary was tasked with making savings of £17 million over five years - it has achieved some £1.6 million in 2011.

Supt Skeels, who first joined the force at Parkside Police Station 24 years ago, said: “It’s a position I’m proud to be in, the senior officer for Cambridge city as a whole. You don’t get many more challenging jobs than that.

“We are working in a very streamlined manner now so we have got to do things very carefully and efficiently. In the past we have resolved things by sending additional resources, now we have got to be targeted with our resources.

“We have got to be slick about protecting what’s going to happen. It’s going to be testing.”

Supt Skeels said her team at Cambridge was very experienced and, in a year where Cambridge will host the 
Olympic flame a month before the first anniversary of the summer riots, was confident she could deliver.

“We need to be really 
responsive to the public need. We have to be clever in dealing with our resources but obviously it’s very difficult to prioritise dealing with missing persons where there might be a risk or road safety or domestic abuse.”

Part of the “streamlining” of the force involves police officers dealing with offenders’ cases from start to finish rather than moving them between departments.

“We have to move away from a ‘silo’ approach to policing and allow officers to have ownership of the job from beginning to end,” added Supt Skeels.

The way Cambridgeshire Constabulary polices the city will change in April when divisional commanders will work in teams aligned to the district authority areas - Cambridge city, Huntindonshire, South Cambridgeshire, East Cambridgeshire, Fenland and Peterborough.