DARWEN’S new top detective is urging the community to work with him to fight crime amid threats of public sector cuts.

Detective Sergeant Rob Anderson replaces Ian Geogarty as head of CID, who has moved to a new job based in Blackburn.

DS Anderson has been with the force for nine years, starting out as a uniformed response officer in Blackburn, before moving onto a special targetting team, and then Blackburn CID.

He has been involved in high-profile cases such as the rape of a 12-year-old boy in a Darwen field in 2008, an armed raid on the Ancient and Modern jewellers in Blackburn, and the murder of David McGee in Blackburn.

High on the current political agenda is talk of cuts to public services in order to cut national deficit.

DS Anderson is hoping that any cost-cutting won’t affect his 'excellent team of experienced officers'.

He said: “It’s a great place to work. It’s a close-knit community around here and people are generally very forthcoming with information.

“In the potential climate of public service cuts, these relationships are likely to be more important than ever.

“I want to strengthen our links with the neighbourhood policing teams, and make sure residents feel they can tell us what is happening in their area.

“I want them to know that every single crime reported is given the same amount of scrutiny and that our customers are satisfied with the job we’re doing and understand the processes we’re going through.”

As he gets to grip with his new patch, one of DS Anderson’s first jobs is to review all crimes happening in the town and surrounding areas and look for patterns.

He said: “One of the big challenges for this town is cross-border crime coming from Greater Manchester.

“The A666 is a thoroughfare for criminals coming from Manchester, and there are plans to get some more Automatics Number Plate Recognition cameras in Darwen.

“Darwen also faces a diverse range of crime and criminals because there are large urban and rural areas, which cannot be said of other towns.”

Other projects to lower low-level crimes, such as the number of incidents of wing mirror vandandalism, are also being reviewed.