Northumbria Fills New Management Team
Monday, 19 April, 2010
Northumbria Police Authority (NPA) has appointed Sue Sim as temporary Chief Constable for the force.
The Home Office has agreed to the authority's request to appoint the current Deputy Chief Constable to the top job for six months from April following the retirement of Chief Constable Mike Craik last month.
They also agreed other changes to the force's chief officer team, including making Assistant Chief Constable Jim Campbell the temporary Deputy Chief Constable for six months.
Mrs Sim joined the force in November 2004 as an Assistant Chief Constable after 19 years with Merseyside Police where she was a chief superintendent. She quickly impressed the force and the authority with her ideas and commitment to tackling crime and was promoted to Deputy Chief Constable in 2008.
Mrs Sim, who is married with two children, also has a national role with the Association of Chief Police Officers - holding the national portfolio for Public Order.
During her time in Merseyside Mrs Sim was the Area Commander for South Sefton where she had responsibility for Ashworth High Security Hospital and was operational commander for the judicial review and hunger strike of Ian Brady. She was also operational commander for two Grand Nationals.
Mrs Sim was promoted to Chief Superintendent in 2002 and took command of the Crime Operations Unit which included Major Incident Teams. She also took responsibility for the introduction of the Crime and Disorder Act throughout Merseyside.
During 2003 Mrs Sim worked with HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and was responsible for the inspection of Area Commands throughout England and Wales. Following this secondment Mrs Sim returned to Merseyside Police to become head of Community Relations with responsibility for implementing the Race Equality Scheme.
Mr Campbell has been with Northumbria Police throughout his policing career, which began in 1983. He is the Assistant Chief Constable responsible for Citizen Focus, Criminal Justice, Communications and the Policing Pledge.
Mr Campbell was an Area Commander from 2001 until 2005. His initial command was at Sunderland West where he remained until March 2004, when he took charge of the new Sunderland command, formed through the amalgamation of the former policing areas within the city.
In September 2005 he became head of Corporate Development Department, which has lead responsibility for all aspects of strategic and business planning before leaving to complete the Strategic Command Course in October 2006.
He is married with two sons, enjoys family life, keeping fit, golf and sea angling.
Cllr Mick Henry, chair of the NPA, said: "Our current Chief Constable will be a hard act to follow, but I am sure Sue Sim will do a great job to keep on improving the force over the next six months.
"Northumbria is one of the country's best performing police forces and we need people of the calibre and experience of Sue Sim and Jim Campbell to continue that superb record of achievement."
