Wigan's new police chief has warned "hardcore baddies" who are terrorising the town that "I'll seize your granny's flat".
Chief Superintendent Emily Higham sent the chilling message as she cracks down on criminals blighting the the borough.
She told the M.E.N: "There are those that are out there there raping and pillaging people walking around carrying knives and involved in organised crimes.
“For those hardcore baddies? We'll get your belly against my counter, because that’s what it’s about.
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“We are going to target you, we are going to arrest you, we are going to make sure that you are on our radar,
“I’m gonna seize all your assets, I’m gonna seize your granny’s flat and your mum’s car and I’m going to come and target you because you are a blight on the communities.”
A local girl done more than good, Ch Supt Higham was appointed as Wigan’s district commander back in September as part of a major shake up of force leaders by new Greater Manchester Chief Constable Stephen Watson.
The 50-year-old returned to GMP following secondment as head of the North West Regional Crime Unit.
Originally from Norley Hall, Ch Supt Higham described her new role as police boss of the home town that she never left as a ‘dream come true’.
She said: “I’m born and bred, I’ve never, I’ve never wanted to move. My family and friends are all here which makes it a little more special for me.
“I always work 110% but now I’ll work 150% because what I do today will affect my children tomorrow.
“I always wanted to come back to Wigan and thank you Mr Chief Constable you have delivered my dream come true and I’m still smiling."
A career spanning almost 30 years that began in Wigan as a response officer, Ch Supt Higham has built up a formidable reputation that has seen her pioneer and break records within the GMP working in places such as, Salford, Bury, Cheetham Hill and Moss Side.
In April 2019, she was awarded the British Association for Women in Policing (BAWP) Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in policing.
She was the first female Detective Chief Inspector and Superintendent in the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, the first female Chief Superintendent within the Operational Communications Branch before moving on to be the first female head of the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit.
During her stint in Moss Side she took on the nickname ‘Dirty Harriet’, in tribute to the Clint Eastwood classic Dirty Harry.
She said: “I was posted to the gun and gang unit in Moss Side because I was the first female head of organised crime.
“I remember saying to my husband, crying, ‘What do I know about guns and gangs? And it’s on the other side of Manchester.’
“And he said to me: ‘shut up Dirty Harriet and get on with it!’
“It was a fantastic place to work, my husband came up with dirty Harriet and when I was there they called me Dirty Harriet!”
She now has the task of restoring the relationship between the public and GMP after the force was placed in special measures in December 2020 after the police inspectorate (HMI) published a damning report exposing it’s failures around recording crime and protecting vulnerable people.
And another report that deemed the force was performing so badly it was putting the public at risk.
She said: “We’ve got to rebuild the trust and confidence in the communities, we are a force on special measures and it’s been well publicised that we haven’t been picking up the phone, reporting the right number of crimes or getting to people in a timely manner.
“What I want to reassure the public of Wigan and Leigh and all our neighbourly boroughs is that we have brought in a new process where our response officers are getting to you now.
“If you do ring Wigan Police we’ll get to you in a timely manner and we will offer you an appointment, we’re trying to go to victim led policing.”
The focus on victim led policing comes from her passion in supporting the victims of crime.
A major focus in her career which saw her lead the implementation of the first domestic violence court in Greater Manchester, training magistrates, judges, crown prosecutors and the media on the challenges surrounding domestic violence and the needs of victims.
She said: “My grounding for victims was here because I went to some domestic abuse jobs that resonate with me still today.
“There were some pivotal jobs here that I just thought ‘this is just not right’
“When I went into supervisory roles as a sergeant or as an inspector that’s when you start to have influence.
“I brought in quite a lot of things that are now common practice across the whole GMP and the country and I’m quite proud of that.”
With police raids aimed at cracking down on organised crimes in Wigan and instances of rising tensions between communities, Ch Supt Higham has made a plea to locals to use all the tools available to them to help the police help the community.
She said: “I am well aware of some of our areas where there are some community tensions, a lot of that of late has been the perception of the community.
“We’ve had community tensions here in Wigan where when we’ve got to the bottom of that, it’s not as the public perceived it to be.
“So it is about being able to bridge the gap and get the truth out there, and actually allay the fears and have visible policing.
“But it’s also about the fact that sometimes its the community leaders and community themselves that have that voice and we will support them on that.
“But my view is, if there is a community within any part of Wigan that feels they don’t have a voice, or that they are not getting visible policing or there are tensions that we are not aware of, then they must come forward because we cannot support communities if we don’t know about it.
“What I have seen is where people and individuals have suffered in silence for a very long time and then when we do get the call, its at a real crisis point.
“I don’t want that, I want people to have the confidence to come forward, so we can help support early intervention and nip things in the bud.”
