Lisburn’s new police chief is ‘excited’ to be at helm

Chief Inspector Jonathan Wilson (38), who has been with the PSNI for the past 18 years is looking forward to his new role.

“Lisburn is a great place to live and to work,” he said. “It is also a safe place to live and I want to make sure that it stays that way,” he said.

His career began in Strabane and he has since served at north, south and east Belfast and Lisburn Tactical Support. He served as an Inspector in south and east Belfast, a community Safety Inspector, neighbourhood support in Belfast city centre and staff officer for ACC. He was actively involved in search and public order incidents - most notably at the G8 summit.

He is looking forward to the challenges of being Area Commander with Lisburn PSNI and paid tribute to the work of his predecessor Darrin Jones who he has described as having done a ‘tremendous job.’

“I would like to continue in terms of his work,” he said, “At the moment the main issues that I would be keen to tackle are road traffic deaths, reduction in burglaries and anti social behaviour.

“We have two more fatalities in our roads than what we have this time last year. We want to do everything we can to prevent this. The last thing that we want is for our officers to be visiting a family to give them heartbreaking news that their loved ones have been killed on the roads.

“We can do what we can but drivers too must also take responsibility.

He also hoped to tackle burglaries and urged the public to continue to report suspicious activity.

“The last thing we want to see is a rise in break ins,” he said. “Householders can prevent breakins by ensuring their properties are secured.”

He also spoke of the importance of reporting suspicious activity.

“Recently we arrested three males and two in another insident and that was down to suspicious activity of break ins,” he said.