DRUG dealers, car thieves and burglars are to be targeted by police with the arrival of a new superintendent for the Canterbury, Herne Bay and Whitstable area.

Supt Gary Beautridge intends to make class A drugs, burglary and auto-crime his priorities. Intelligence-led policing will be used to target the criminals. Supt Beautridge said: "We will be looking at a small number of people in the community who are causing a significant problem. There are a number of ways that we will do that but we need to be very, very good at engaging criminal behaviour to become predictive about who commits crime and where it is happening."

In addition, the police will continue to work with partners in the community such as Canterbury City Council to reduce the opportunities there are to commit crime. He said it was a double-edged approach.

Supt Beautridge has been in the police force for 23 years but has spent the last 21 out of uniform working as detective. He has worked on the county drug squad and the National Crime Squad. His work has been largely based in Medway.

He said: "I'm looking forward to taking further the excellent work that's been started with our public partnership work. I've been impressed by the level of commitment to work together. The performance of the police and the crime reduction partnerships over the last three years has been outstanding."

Supt Beautridge is continuing to live in Medway but plans to move to east Kent with his family soon.