New superintendent begins overseeing local policing in Warrington

An officer who began his career in Warrington is now overseeing the town as its new superintendent for local policing.

Mike Evans took over on Monday 17 May after previously being the detective chief inspector for the Serious and Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).

The 36-year-old, from Liverpool, first joined Cheshire Constabulary in 2004 as a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) after leaving school at 16 and joining the Royal Navy.

Two years later, in 2006, he became a uniformed constable and was posted to Warrington.

Since then he has served as a detective and in uniform at every rank up to and including chief inspector.

From 2013 to 2015 he spent two years as a neighbourhood inspector in Widnes before moving to Chester local policing unit as its chief inspector.

Before leaving in 2018, he led a pilot that involved the roll out of 122 PCSOs and community bases.

Mike is also a hostage and crisis negotiator and an accredited senior investigating officer, specialising in serious and organised crime.

He led the newly formed SOCU, based at Cheshire Constabulary’s headquarters in Winsford.

Superintendent Evans said: “Over the past three years I have really focused on removing from our communities those who cause the most harm. This has particularly involved the criminal use of viable firearms.

“A large part of this has been heavily situated in Warrington and resulted in some notable success stories, including dismantling three organised crime groups that were a driving force in the town.

“My next step is to work with partners to build up community resilience so that these individuals and organised crime groups aren’t able to gain such a foothold in the community, and as a former resident of Warrington I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead such a good team going forward.”