New police commander in Waveney

The Waveney policing district has a new commander - Chief Inspector Paul Sharp - and the posting is a return home as he has lived in the area for more than 30 years and has previously served as a constable, sergeant and inspector at Lowestoft.

The Waveney policing district has a new commander - Chief Inspector Paul Sharp - and the posting is a return home as he has lived in the area for more than 30 years and has previously served as a constable, sergeant and inspector at Lowestoft.

Chief Inspector Sharp has swapped jobs with Paul Bradford, Waveney's previous commander, who has now taken up the role of Community Safety Chief Inspector at police headquarters at Martlesham Heath.

Paul Sharp joined Suffolk Police in 1994, starting his career in Lowestoft as a response officer before becoming area beat officer for Whitton in 1998. He was then promoted to sergeant in September 2000 and served at Leiston and Ipswich before rising to the rank of inspector and taking up a job in the force control room at Martlesham Heath. He returned to Lowestoft in June 2004 where he served as inspector with responsibility for the south of the town.

In April 2005 he was appointed as a regional co-ordinator for the Impact Programme, over-seeing work in the six eastern region constabularies (including Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex) to implement the recommendations of the Bichard enquiry, which aimed to improve the ability of the police service to manage and share information in the wake of the Soham murders.

He carried out this role for a year before becoming District Commander for Mid Suffolk. In October 2007 he then moved back to police headquarters to take up the community safety role.

He has also served as a Temporary Superintendent in the Constabulary Citizen Focus department before taking up his new role as Waveney District Commander.

Paul says he is already getting settled into the job, after officially starting on September 21.

'My over-riding aim is to take Waveney forward by continuing to build public confidence in the policing service we provide. Between April and August this year while Waveney saw an overall decrease in crime of 3pc we are aware there are still areas of concern to address. We will be getting out to talk to local people as well as working with our partners to tackle these issues to help keep crime and anti-social behaviour down.'

Paul, a former county golfer, is married with two children and holds a masters degree in police leadership and management.