Dacorum Police Welcome New Chief Inspector

The Dacorum Community Safety Partnership (CSP) has appointed a new Chief Inspector, Jason Keane, who began his role in September.

Jason brings with him more than 25 years of policing experience as he takes the reins from the borough’s former Chief Inspector Craig Flint, who has been promoted to Superintendent in the Constabulary’s Digital Transformation team.

Jason joined the organisation in 1995 and cut his teeth in the world of intervention* in St Albans, before being promoted to Sergeant in the early 2000s. He also completed a stint as a custody sergeant in the former suite at St Albans police station, before joining the tactical team in the mid-2000s. Based in Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted, Jason worked with his specially-trained team to support his colleagues with potentially high-risk and violent situations.

In 2011 Jason was posted to Hertsmere CID (now known as the Local Crime Unit) as a Detective Sergeant, before later being promoted to the unit’s Detective Inspector. In 2014 he transferred to the Watford Local Crime unit where he worked for several years, leading his team as they investigated a range of crime including burglaries, robberies and serious assaults.

In 2016, he took up a position as Detective Inspector in the Sexual Offences Investigation Team (SOIT), a team of detectives and investigators who build cases against perpetrators of serious sexual assault and achieve justice for victims.

He worked with SOIT for two years before moving into the role of Detective Inspector in the Integrated Offender Management Unit in 2018. Jason was based at Hatfield police station, where he took a multi-agency approach in working to tackle prolific offenders who are entrenched in their criminal behaviours and therefore cause the most harm to society.

In his final role before joining Dacorum as the new Chief Inspector, between 2019 and 2021 Jason held the position of Detective Inspector for both the Specialist Investigation Team and Operational Intelligence Team, based at Hatfield police station.

Jason, who grew up in the St Albans area and spent some time living in Hemel Hempstead, said: ‘I have only been in post a very short time but what has struck me most about my new Dacorum colleagues is their enthusiasm and passion for the job. Their resilience in dealing with challenging situations on a daily basis is something I hugely admire.

‘My experience of the operational intelligence and offender management world means I can help build on our work of disrupting and dismantling organised crime groups and county lines which operate in our borough. My aim is to make Dacorum as hostile as possible for these individuals, and I will be drawing on my links with colleagues in other police forces to help me achieve that goal.

‘It is also important that we help vulnerable people who have been exploited by these criminals by referring them to relevant support services, which will help mitigate the county line marketplace. In turn, this double-strand strategy will help drive down crime and reduce serious violence.

‘On a more hyper-local level, there are some upcoming changes in our Safer Neighbourhood Team and I am looking forward to assisting them in continuing their good work. Their focus is on the chronic issues that affect people’s quality of life, such as anti-social behaviour (ASB), vandalism and drug crime. They work closely with our Community Safety Unit and the borough council to utilise tools such as Community Protection Notices and closure orders on properties linked to ongoing crime and ASB.’

Jason, who lives just over the border in Buckinghamshire, is a dad to three teenagers. In his spare time he enjoys mountain biking, dog walking and the occasional ParkRun.

What do you think Jason and his team should be focusing on as a policing priority in Dacorum? You can use the feedback tool, echo, to tell police what you think should be top of the list. You can submit your thoughts by filling out the simple online form at bit.ly/police-dacorum.

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*Intervention teams respond in fast-time to emergency calls from the public and partners.