After 9 months as the District Commander for Southend, Chief Insp Matt Bennet announced he was stepping down and a new District Commander would be taking over the role. Moving on from the important role, Matt said: “I wish Chief Insp Simon Anslow the very best. You are in safe hands.”
Chief Insp Simon Anslow then announced he was excited to start as the new Southend District Commander for Essex Police.
Simon began his career with Essex Police 15 years ago in Southend. His first four years in the force were spent based at Southend, Westcliff and Shoebury stations. Progressing quickly through the ranks, he has been part of the road policing unit, held a sergeant role in Basildon, promoted to an Inspector in Laindon and then became a Detective Inspector covering Basildon and Thurrock.
For the last two years Simon has been based at the Essex Police headquarters in Chelmsford and was recently the DCI put in charge of the intelligence department.
Speaking to Your Southend, he said: “I’ve been to a few places in 15 years but it’s great to be back in the town I grew up in and where I started my career.”
Simon has lots of plans for policing in Southend but one of his new initiatives is particularly interesting. Using Twitter, he has began posting updates about the work his team do in Southend including the situations they face and the outcomes of their policing operations.
Simon said: “So much hard work goes into policing, so many officers that go the extra mile, putting themselves on the line to protect us and face situations most would dread, and I’d like to let people know about it.”
As well as tweeting about police work, Simon balances it out with tweets about his own life spent with his family and what he gets up to on his days off.
He added: “I’d like to show that we’re human. We’re just people trying to protect other people and we’re as fallible and as amazing as anyone else.”
His first week as Southend’s new police District Commander was a busy one:
Day 1: “Wow. Loads to take in on a great first day at Southend. Chief Insp Matt Bennett and the team have had loads of things going on. #GettingStarted”
Day 2: “Top work overnight by officers – 2 suspects stopped on stolen cycles in Leigh-on-Sea. Both charged with shed burglary. Property recovered.”
Day 3: “First partnership meeting today; making sure everything’s in place to retain the Purple Flag status that shows Southend is a safe night out.”
Day 4: “Met with local partners: 84% of offenders on Youth Offending Service triage scheme don’t reoffend. #Effective”
Day 5: “More great work today in Southend: Another burglar arrested close to the scene with stolen property. That’s 5 this week. #Relentless”
Day 6: “AM: play centre kids party with my 3 year old. PM: Essex Police’s County Silver Commander. #WorkLifeBalance. Busy evening in Essex including two missing kids found safe and well. Six prisoners in Southend custody for theft of vehicles. #NotInOurTown”
Day 7: “End of my first week in Southend. Patrolled today and attended a nasty assault – two arrested. Statement’s done, time for some foot patrol on the High Street.”
The Chief Inspector revealed he had worked 85 hours in his first week as the Police District Commander for Southend and commented that he is impressed with his new team and their results.
He said: “It was the longest working week I’ve had for a while but it was a brilliant way to start off. I met loads of people and even managed to get out on patrol for a few hours. Southend has so much going on that there’s no way I could learn it in a week, but I got a nice introduction.”