The man who put shamed former Dacorum mayor Stephen Holmes behind bars is now in charge of crime fighting across the whole of the borough.
Dacorum Chief Insp Glen Channer has replaced Mike Pryce, but in his previous role – running the Herts unit in charge of protecting vulnerable people – he led the investigation into the former Woodhall Farm councillor, who was jailed last year for racking up a massive collection of child pornography.
“He quite rightly got convicted and sentenced,” said Chief Insp Channer.
“We do a lot of covert work on the internet and he came up.
“The message is: You never know who is watching what you are doing. We are very proactive around that type of crime.”
In his new job, the top cop, who warns he is making Dacorum a zero tolerance area, hopes to be able to turn the lives of young offenders around before they become entrenched in a life of law breaking.
He aims to achieve this by working with families and other bodies such as social services and Dacorum Borough Council.
Since being back in Dacorum – he took up the post last month – the chief inspector has come across young people who were in trouble with the police when he worked in the borough more than 10 years ago, now facing criminal charges as adults.
He said: “If more support had been put into them we might have been able to divert them from crime.”
Chief Insp Channer has already worked on a project that sees police and social service workers pay regular visits to children who have been placed on the neglect register in a bid to improve lives and safeguard them from falling into crime.
He transferred to Herts Constabulary in 2000, after 10 years with the Metropolitan Police force, and worked his way up the ranks while based in Dacorum.