Heading for the top

IT WOULD be easy to get the wrong idea about Tim Madgwick. On paper, he looks to be one of those classic high fliers bent on going places fast. Four years ago, he was a sergeant in Strensall and Clifton. Today, he's the new acting head of York police, with the rank of acting chief superintendent.

It's been a phenomenal rise by any standards - especially for someone who didn't join the police until he was 30.

He recognises that himself. "There are PCs here saying, 'You were a sergeant in Clifton in 1999!'," the 45-year-old admits with a grin.

His career since then only increases the impression he is being groomed. After promotion to inspector, he served as York city centre commander, before being switched to police headquarters at Newby Wiske as staff officer to former Chief Constable David Kenworthy.

He then became district commander for Hambleton with the rank of chief inspector, before moving back to police HQ as the superintendent in charge of complaints.

To reinforce the picture of a man on the move, it appears his temporary appointment as John Lacy's successor as police commander for York and Selby was at Chief Constable Della Cannings' request. He does not volunteer this information; but asked how he came to be taking up his new job, he admits that he "was asked if I would come".

There is more to York's new police commander than an ambitious career opportunist, however.

Yes, he has "made the most of his opportunities"; and yes, he is ambitious. If the chance came for him to go for an assistant chief constable's job, he would not turn it down. But his temporary appointment to the top job in York is not simply a stepping stone.

He would like to do the job permanently but doesn't feel ready yet. "It is one of those jobs I have always wanted," he says. "But I have to recognise the fact that it is a major role, and I need to develop more experience."

While the job of York police chief has been advertised nationally, he hasn't thrown his own hat in the ring - not this time.

As a stop-gap commander for the city, he looks like a canny choice. In one way, he is a policeman with an unexpectedly soft centre: a onetime teacher who is passionate about disability rights.

A keen sportsman, he is the national Special Olympics co-ordinator for the police service in England and Wales. He is involved in helping to organise next year's games for learning disabled sportsmen and women.

"I ran in London with a severely autistic young man recently," he says. "We ran along the South Bank, past the Houses of Parliament, and this young man hardly said a word to me all the way, even though I was running with him.

"We got to the end, and he got his medal, and then I spoke to him mum, and she said, 'Six weeks ago, he wouldn't even leave the house'. It was a huge achievement for him, even participating in the event."

Criminals in York who believe he is going to be a soft touch, however, could be in for a shock.

For a start, he understands the city and its problems. After an early career as a PE, geography and geology teacher, and three years running the Dawnay Arms pub in Newton-on-Ouse, he joined the police in 1988, aged 30.

He began his career by patrolling the north of York - Clifton, Kingsway North, The Groves and Bell Farm - in a police response car. Then he put in ten years in the city, as a PC and a sergeant, and even today, there is probably not a street in the city he doesn't know.

He is also determined to stamp out anti-social behaviour. On February 10, before he took up his new job, he attended an anti-social behaviour conference in the city, where he effectively called on magistrates and councils to get tough with the yobs.

His language was careful but the message was clear: the legislation existed to allow persistent yobs to be served with anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) designed to curb their behaviour, and it should be used.

Ironically, a few days later magistrates in York declined to use a Criminal Anti Social Behaviour Order to ban a notorious thief and drug addict from stores across the city. His actions were not the sort "to cause harassment, alarm or distress," said the bench.

That must have been frustrating for the police, surely?

Mr Madgwick chooses his words carefully. The verdict, he admits, "caused us some frustration at the time". He won't be drawn on the specifics of the case - but anyone who is targeted by a criminal, whether they are shopkeepers in the city centre or people whose homes are burgled, are all victims of crime. "And clearly they are all distressed by that."

It is not the police's role to tell the judiciary how to do their job, he insists. But he is not a man who is frightened of making his views known.

Whether he will be prepared to take on his own chief constable to win York a bigger share of the county's policing resources is another matter. Many in the city believe that York and Selby do not receive a fair share of the county's resources considering they have a higher crime rate than rural areas.

When pressed, he says that like his predecessor John Lacy - a man he describes as a "phenomenal servant to the city of York" - he will continue to put the case for more resources.

"But I also accept that North Yorkshire is a very diverse county, and there are a lot of complex factors involved in how we police it," he says.

"To simply compare one part of the crime data as an argument for getting more money is perhaps flawed. We have to show that the resources we have got we use as effectively and efficiently as possible."

He is not short on ideas for how that can be done. The problem with the police call centre is a thing of the past, he insists. "There were difficulties, but they have been overcome. It is a major success story." To start to bring down crimes such as burglary, he is determined to focus police resources by targeting crime hotspots and turning up the heat on known offenders.

If they are on bail, they will be checked on to make sure they comply, he says. If they are driving a car known to have been involved in a crime, they will be stopped and checked.

He is also determined to improve the quality of information-gathering by front-line officers. North Yorkshire police already have one of the best crime detection rates in the country. The trick is to turn that into successful prosecutions.

To do that, police need evidence. Officers have to be better at questioning witnesses and at recording information they are given, no matter how trivial it may seem.

"We need quality statements," he says. "Every contact with people out there is an opportunity. It's about going out, walking around, talking to people, not just sitting in a car."

Resources remain limited, however - which is why the police have to prioritise calls for help. A situation in which someone's life could be under threat will always be more of a priority than one in which yobs may have disrupted a youth club and moved on.

To make the best use of resources, he favours concentrating on core responsibilities - to prevent crime and protect lives and properties.

If that sometimes involves cutting back on other traditional areas of police activity, he says, so be it. At one time the police automatically responded to any alarm that went off, even though 95 per cent of them were false alarms. Now they will only do so if there are other suspicious circumstances.

Police will also be looking at way they man major events - and will be re-examining whether asking trained traffic officers to escort wide loads along the county's roads, for example, is the best way of using their valuable time.

This sounds suspiciously like belt-tightening. "But we have finite resources," Mr Madgwick says, "and there will be some difficult decisions to make."

No doubt there will be plenty of people to criticise them, too. But that's all part of being York's top cop.

Updated: 09:41 Thursday, March 04, 2004