A FORMER space industry worker is helping to push back the frontiers of crime in Wyre Forest.

Mark Williams took over as chief inspector in Kidderminster Police Division in October, at a time when reported crime was tumbling.

"We have an excellent record for one of the lowest burglary rates in the country," he said. "It has been achieved by never becoming complacent in any way and my plan for the future is to continue the fight to prevent and reduce crime, using the latest intelligence policing methods."

Chief Insp Williams, 42, is a father-of-four and lives in Kidderminster. His wife, Lyn, is a personnel officer with West Mercia Constabulary.

Before joining the police as a constable in Hampshire in 1979, he was in the Merchant Navy, going on to work for Marconi.

During his time with Marconi, he worked as a project manager on the European Arianne space project to deploy satellites.

He moved to the West Mercia force in 1986 and has served in various areas, including headquarters at Hindlip, Telford and Bromsgrove, both as a uniformed officer and in CID.

Before his recent promotion, he was a detective sergeant in Kidderminster Division.

In his new role, he heads about 150 police officers plus civilian support staff.

"This year, we have really gone all out to drive down crime," he said, in the light of the division's success so far.

"Earlier in the year, we went high profile in the media, to encourage people to give us information, either directly or through Crimestoppers, and we were quite successful through that and got quite a bit of information."

He warned potential wrongdoers the police were in no mood to let up their efforts, despite recent successes.

"We've been giving pain to the burglars, instead of the other way round, which is what we wanted to do.

"It still concerns me that there are a lot of burglaries that are still happening.

"We're doing the best we can to reduce them and lock these people up, which is the main thing."

He added that he and his officers wanted to "maintain the success we have had and take the fight back to the burglars".