Main aims for North Yorkshire Police's new Deputy Chief Constable
Mabs Hussain has joined the force from Greater Manchester Police
The new Deputy Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police has been highlighting his main aims as he takes on the role.
Mabs Hussain joined North Yorkshire Police as Deputy Chief Constable this January after having been Assistant Chief Constable at Greater Manchester Police since October 2018.
He's been speaking of his main aims for North Yorkshire and what he hopes to crack down on in 2022.
He said:
"I'm really proud to be part of the North Yorkshire Police family. It's a great opportunity and a great organisation. I've been a neighbour of North Yorkshire Police for many years having worked in West Yorkshire, and there's a feeling of immense pride.
"What I want to be able to do is enhance the performance of the force and the service we provide to the public - that's ultimately what we're here to do. Safeguarding and public protection is a priority of mine and something that I've always been passionate about.
"As an organisation we need to do much more in particular around violence against women and girls; there's lots of good work taking place but there's much more we need to do. Working in partnership with other services across North Yorkshire will be a priority to me - to make sure we can look at reducing demand coming into policing and other services. By reducing demand we can reduce victims and prevent further crimes.
"In the next few months I'm looking forward to meeting partners, staff and getting to know North Yorkshire Police".
Mabs was born in Bradford and after working for a short period with the Inland Revenue he started his policing career with West Yorkshire Police in 1996.
When working for West Yorkshire Police, Mabs served at every rank as a detective including Detective Chief Inspector, investigating complex and serious crime. He was promoted to Superintendent in 2012 and worked in a variety of uniformed operational and strategic roles. As Chief Superintendent he was the Commander for Wakefield and also spent time as the Commander for Leeds District.
While at Greater Manchester Police Mabs was responsible for specialist crime: major investigation teams, serious and organised crime teams, forensics, safeguarding, and public protection.
He is a Specialist Firearms Commander and a Gold Public Order Commander. He is the National Police Chiefs Council lead on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation.
Mabs was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2018 for his services to charity and policing.
Speaking about the murder of Sarah Everard - who was originally from York - Mabs told us:
"As a father, brother and son it's really important to me (to deal with violence against women and girls). When I look at my daughter we need a society where she feels safe; not a society where we ask her to change her behaviour, wear trainers or carry keys in her hands. It's incumbent on us as officers to do all we can to make things safer for victims of crime - in particular women and girls.
"From a trust point of view what Wayne Couzens did was disgusting, reprehensible and awful: there's no place for that in society, let alone in policing. I wear the uniform to protect the public, and that's what our officers want to do. What I want to do is look at areas where we're not providing the best possible service we can".
Mabs worked for over 22 years in West Yorkshire and 3 years in Manchester (8 of those months as Deputy Chief Constable).
He explains that policing is about serving the public:
"It doesn't matter what force you're in: policing is policing. The basic principles of what we do are relevant whether you're sat in West Yorkshire or North Yorkshire. Geographically, it's a very different type of county in North Yorkshire.
"Our communities are very different and the needs of those communities are very different, so if you look at the rural communities. We need to make sure we're serving all communities and tailoring our services to what their needs are. I know that rural areas have issues around rural crime, visibility of officers and a feeling of safety.
"I need to do all I can to make sure we're aligned to what that demand is".