- From June 20, 2006
Kingston’s new police superintendent vowed to crack down on knife crime and get out on the streets herself, as she settled into managing the borough’s force of more than 300 officers.
Detective Superintendent Sue Hill took over the operational top spot on April 24, 2006, working as second in command to the borough’s Chief Superintendent Angela List and continuing the tradition of women at the top in Kingston’s police.
The married mother-of-two was a police officer for 27 years, and had a background in the CID working on serious crime and homicide.
She worked on the Ricky Reel murder inquiry in Kingston in 1997 as part of her work with the CID.
The Asian student’s body was found in the river after a night out with friends. A coroner recorded an open verdict and no-one was ever charged with his death despite rumours he had been involved in a fight that evening.
Before returning to Kingston, she was running four murder-solving teams at Hendon.
She said: “Kingston is a wonderful place. I have worked in a lot of London boroughs and for me it is like arriving in paradise, I don’t think much will faze me. It is just the tiny minority we need to police.”
After the double stabbing at the Works nightclub on May 5, 2006, Det Supt Hill was coordinating a drive to help fight knife crime.
Det Supt Hill said: “We want to keep people safe and if you have nothing to hide there isn’t a problem.”
She went out on night patrol with some of her team to see the problems they were facing for herself.
She praised co-operative nightclub staff but said she “felt like everyone’s mum” as she watched drunk teenagers getting into taxis alone.
Street robberies and burglaries in Kingston had risen in 2006, despite a 3.5 per cent drop in overall crime.
Det Supt Hill said: “Because the figures are small, a few extra robberies make the percentages look higher.”
She had high hopes for the 16 new safer neighbourhood police teams who started covering the borough in small patches in spring 2006.
Det Supt Hill’s policing experience included stints working with child protection and reviewing police responses to rape cases.
She said: “I have only had seven days off sick in 27 years. I still enjoy what I do, it is a pleasure and I am proud to be a police officer.”
- From June 12, 2006
The latest life expectancy league table for London showed people in Kingston were living longer than ever. The average woman in the borough was expected to live to 81.5 years old, and the average man to 78.3, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. The lowest figures were for Tower Hamlets where men could expect to live to 73.9 and women to 79.2.
- From June 14, 1991
Dignitaries turned out in force to greet Kingston’s MP Norman Lamont during his first organised visit in the borough since his appointment as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr Lamont was at Kingston Station to launch the new and improved service for the line into Waterloo. The extra trains meant the service into London doubled from two to four trains an hour.
- From June 15, 1966
A Surbiton drummer was fined two days’ wages after missing a beat during the Trooping the Colour parade. It was the 12th time musician Henry Grey had taken part and he was riding the famous drum horse Hannibal. Despite a Guards spokesman saying “only the most acute observer would have noticed” the missed beat, Mr Grey, of Cranes Drive, was fined £3 8s.
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