Controlling and co-ordinating a high visibility police presence at a local football match, overseeing an operation which might have involved a terrorist bomb or dealing with complaints about officers, is all in a day's work for Superintendent Charles Hill. The top cop for this area, he is Territorial Policing Commander for the county and he has a background policing very different areas.

The 43-year-old has 22 years service under his belt since he joined the Met. He was attracted to the bright lights of London but found himself patrolling the streets of Stoke Newington. At that time it had the highest murder rate in the country and was the first place crack cocaine was found on the streets. After policing such a mixed community, with high levels of crime, rural Herefordshire presents a very different challenge.

Superintendent Hill describes Ross as a very quiet market town with low levels of crime and he wants to keep it that way. He believes in taking a firm approach, for example when he was out on New Year's Eve patrolling the streets of Ross he discovered one of the licenced premises in the town breaking the conditions of their licence. He spoke to them and told them the offence would be reported.

He accepts that there is crime in the area and, with excellent access roads such as the A40, Ross has to deal with a significant amount of travelling criminality. But the Superintendent is quick to point out that with all the new technology it is now easier to detect those who have committed an offence.

He gave an example of a car which had been left in a drive with the engine running to warm up on a cold morning. Two lads, one recently released from prison, spotted it and drove off in it. They were caught a couple of hours later thanks to a tracking device. And recent innovations including automatic vehicle recognition systems also makes tracking criminals easier. The Superintendent said that improved technology needs to be embraced by the police as well as the public.

Nowadays when people call 999 they not only speak to the controller answering the phone, but a response vehicle will already have been dispatched. This means response times in an emergency can be much quicker.

As Superintendent for Herefordshire, very few days are the same, but they usually start early with a meeting involving representatives from CID as well as the local and response policing teams. At this point he reviews events that have taken place overnight and takes note of any significant arrests or crimes. This helps inform his work, providing a 'strategic vision' to combat ongoing trends.

By about 10am he is ready to take part in a force-wide conference call, which is when decisions are made to pull resources from one force to another. This can be followed by routine interviews when he discusses any problems regarding the conduct of his officers. He also provides support to officers applying for promotion.

The afternoons are usually taken up with meetings, covering various matters such as the upcoming Jubilee, finance or working with other partner organisations. Superintendent Hill knows that there is no point just arresting people, the police have to work with other groups to help stop repeat offending.

When the Superintendent is on-call he can be woken during the night if someone of his rank is needed to extend detention for a suspect or for other exceptional circumstances. He explained that anti-terrorism is a large part of his job. He said:?"A terrorist only has to get lucky once, we have to be lucky all the time." The police have to be constantly aware that terrorism activities could be being planned in this area.

Superintendent Hill also commands fire arm operations across the force.

All of this means that his days are very busy as policing is a 24/7 operation. Recent events included the match between Hereford United and Shrewsbury Town on Saturday, January 28th. It passed off peacefully and Superintendent Hill, who was in charge of the police operation, thanked the fans for their good behaviour. When I pointed out that during the same weekend in Egypt 70 fans had died at a football match, he said:?"That would be my worst nightmare." And it gives a slight indication of the weight of responsibility on his shoulders.

The financial aspects of maintaining a police service are also weighing heavily at the moment, he knows that the force has to make cut-backs but he hopes he will not have to make the drastic cuts that have been necessary in neighbouring Gloucestershire. He said changes have been made in support services to ensure that the front line is not affected.

One cost cutting measure may involve reducing the number of hours the police station is manned in Ross. Superintendent Hill explained that people are now much more likely to use a mobile phone, even email or send a text and don't always need to go to the station.

He is keen to remind readers that policing is about information, he said:?"the more we have the more we can put into our systems and the more likely we can tie up several events. What may seem like a small thing to a caller could be the golden nugget of information we have been waiting for to make an arrest.