BURY'S new top cop has set up a special unit to tackle what he calls a major drugs problem in the borough.

And Chief Superintendent Andy Holt said this week that failure to stem the flow of illegal drugs could see crime spiral out of control.

In his first interview with the Bury Times since his appointment as head of the divisional police force, Chief Supt Holt said the borough must act fast to stop it becoming the new Moss Side of Greater Manchester.

He said: "Most places in Greater Manchester have a drugs problem. Bury is no different. At the moment, the borough is in a far better position than Moss Side, where I last worked, and where there is a very different level of drug activity. There is, however, some evidence that dealers and users were coming from other parts of Greater Manchester because of the lack of police activity in Bury.

"If we do not take a strong, pro-active stance against drugs, people will use the very good transport links to come to Bury, knowing that there is not going to be a drugs squad on their tail. I am determined to stop that and that is why I have formed a specialist drugs unit."

He said other factors which give Moss Side its notorious reputation are not found in Bury, but police cannot be complacent.

"If it is left unchecked, and other areas are doing something about drugs problems, there is a potential for it to get very much worse," he said. "If we end up 'attracting' people into the Bury division to sell drugs or use drugs, crimes associated with that (particularly violent crime) could rise. I do not want innocent people to get caught up in gang warfare, fights and violence."

Chief Supt Holt's comments come as new figures show crime across the division has decreased. The statistics, comparing the period from April to June with the corresponding period in 2002, reveal drug offences, serious woundings, rape and indecent assaults, burglaries and the theft from or of vehicles have decreased. But robberies, thefts from people and minor woundings have increased.

The total number of crimes recorded between April 1 and June 30, 2003, is 5,421, which is down by 5.7 per cent on the previous year's figures for the same period.

Chief Supt Holt said the priorities are combating drugs, robberies and burglaries.

CHIEF Superintendent Andy Holt unveils his crimefighting strategy and other issues which affect policing in Bury. Here, he highlights what he sees as the major crimes that plague the borough, and how he plans to deal with them.

ROBBERY.

BURY, of all the divisions in Greater Manchester, is one that has the least number of robberies, about seven or eight a week.

They are divided into two categories: commercial and street robberies. Robberies of commercial premises, such as banks and off-licences, tend to be carried out by organised criminals, from outside the borough.

We have put in place a number of measures to try and address this and it would appear we are having some success. We have had a commercial-robbery-free month in June, which is the first one we have had this year.

The increase we have had in overall robberies has been largely caused by street robberies. These, in the main, are young people committing offences against other young people.

Combating street robbery is a problem. Offenders are being arrested and taken to court but many are young, some aged only ten or 11. Sometimes it is very difficult for the police and the courts to put effective controls in place.

Again, we have a number of measures in place. We have just received £20,000 in additional funding that will be spent over July, August and September to hopefully stem the slight rise we have seen in street robberies. A number of other tactics will also be undertaken.

BURGLARY

WE are the best-performing division in GMP and, together with our partners, we have looked at a range of measures to deal with this particular crime.

We are certainly looking at tactics to combat distraction burglaries, where people are use false ID to trick their way into elderly people's homes. We have a scheme called Crucial Crew, where we take youngsters aged nine or ten and teach them about stranger danger, trespassing on railways, electricity and first aid.

We are using a similar format to educate older people. One of the things were are concentrating on is distraction burglaries, teaching people how not to become victims of these sort of crimes.

We are also actively targeting our top burglars. We know who they are and we give their names to our patrols. The message from me is that if you are burglar in Bury, you have an entire police looking for you.

But beating burglaries is also the responsibility of home owners. It is about getting home owners to help themselves by making sure doors and windows are secures with adequate locks.

We are also running the Bury police Take Them to Bed scheme to remind people to keep their keys away from prying eyes. It is the same old story: you come in and sling you car keys on the hall table. In the middle of the night, someone sticks a cane with a hook through the letterbox, takes the car keys and steals your car.

Thieves tend to go for nice cars. If you have a Mercedes or something that has good security devices, you cannot steal them without the keys, so offenders will do what is necessary to get them.

I would like to think one of the main things that we have improved upon is arresting and targeting our prolific burglars. I feel quite confident about this because one of the things coming on for the future is our targeted-offenders project: a combined project with the probation service, police and other agencies.

We look at prolific offenders, people who commit lots of crimes, and when they go to court, we will say to the magistrates what we want that person to do, in addition to any sentence they give.

We want them to make offenders subject to a supervision order that is looked at by police and probation officers. If they breach the order, they are back in front of the court. It has had a real impact in other areas because it is about making offenders responsible. It is a real carrot-and-stick approach.

I am confident it is another effective measure that will further reduce crime, especially burglaries.

POLICE LEVELS

I AM fortunate that I will be seeing more officers coming to the division. We have been given an extra 42, on top of those who will retire.

Everyone would like to see more bobbies on the beat and that is a reasonable request. But I am paid to use my professional judgement as to where to deploy these officers to get the most effective and best results.

I know people want to see police officers out patrolling but, equally, they would prefer to see fewer houses being broken into, fewer street robberies and fewer cars being stolen.

I hope in six months that we can show that there has been a continued reduction in crime and that we are continuing to enjoy the success we are enjoying at the moment.

CRIME FIGURES

Wounding serious: 24 (39).

Wounding other: 609 (599).

Rape/indecent assault: 28 (41).

Burglary (dwelling): 447 (552).

Robbery: 127 (117).

Theft from person: 108 (100).

Theft/take cycle: 73 (78).

Shoplifting: 296 (298).

Theft from vehicle: 673 (708).

Theft of vehicle: 325 (366).

Arson: 59 (60).

Criminal damage: 1,085 (1126).

Drugs offences: 50 (60).

Figures for April 1 to June 30, 2003. (Figures for April 1 to June 2002 in brackets).