Inspector Chris Brown is to retire next month after nearly six years in Coalville.

During his time in charge he has seen reported crime fall by 3,000 incidents a year.

He has been succeeded by Inspector Helena Bhakta who took over on Monday.

Insp Brown joined Leicestershire police 30 years ago working in a variety of roles and ranks across the city and county.

He said: “When I arrived at North West Leicestershire, we were dealing with seven and half thousand crimes a year. That figure has dropped to four and a half thousand crimes and I am very proud of that.

“This has only been possible because of the hard work and dedication of the whole team at North West Leicestershire.”

He said he enjoyed working with the organisers of Download, the music festival at Donington Park which is the largest event in Leicestershire.

He added: “The other thing that I am proud of, are our reductions in anti-social behaviour and our customer satisfaction levels of 90 per cent which are the highest in the force.”

Christine Fisher, chief executive of North West Leicestershire District Council, said; “It has been an honour to work with Chris as he has been a great partner and as delivered everything he promised. He will be missed.”

Insp Bhakta said: “I am really looking forward to the challenge of policing North West Leicestershire and meeting the expectations of the community.”