New police superintendent for West Suffolk outlines foreseeable challenges, being a proud mother and her open-door policy
The new police superintendent for West Suffolk has outlined the challenges she faces in the new role, spoken about being a proud mother, and shed light on her open-door policy.
Janine Wratten, 39, spent the last 17 years working in London for the Metropolitan Police before taking up her new role in February, working out of Bury St Edmunds.
Following on from her predecessor Kim Warner, Janine will be covering the response policing team, safer neighbourhoods team and the neighbourhood policing team across Haverhill and Sudbury, Bury St Edmunds, Stowmarket and Mildenhall.
She will also be the force lead for licensing, rural crime and anti-social behaviour.
Janine, whose husband Ashley is an inspector in the Met, said there were no major problems in West Suffolk, but work was still needing to be done.
“There’s a lot of work going on across the county looking at the way we deal with ASB and to making some improvements,” she said.
“It’s more to do with standardisation to make sure people get the same response across the whole county, not to say they’re not getting a good response at the moment.”
As coronavirus regulations ease across the county, Janine said one facet of her role would be making sure businesses were following licensing protocols, while supporting them to open in a safe way.
She also said there would be a focus on tackling hare coursing and incidents of dog thefts which have been seen in recent months.
In the office, Janine operates an open-door policy, and said she tried her best to understand what was happening in her colleagues’ lives, inside and outside of work.
She likes leaving sweets on her desk as well, although admitted the open-door policy meant they often disappeared quite quickly.
Outside of work, Janine said she enjoyed spending time with her husband and two sons, Jacob, six, and Oliver, three.
“My main thing to be when I’m not at work is to be a mum,” she said.
“Because I work full-time in a fairly high ranking role which is quite demanding, any spare time I have I spend with my boys.
“They are in to all sorts, it’s a proper mum with boys thing. It’s climbing trees, playing football, anything that I don’t enjoy, they like!”
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