Speaking candidly inside his office in Colindale Police Station, acting Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Tucker makes a robust assessment of the task ahead as he leads Barnet Police into 2009.

“There are a number of projects going on at the moment trying to support families who aren’t benefiting from the borough’s general prosperity,” he said.

“We are trying to recognise the early stages of involvement in gangs and diverting people away from them.

“And to give them a way out when they are involved in them as well.”

DCS Tucker, who took over the role of borough commander in October, said his return to Barnet last year was something of a homecoming, having begun his career in the Metropolitan Police in West Hendon.

He said: “I was here in 1981 straight out of the training centre.

“We covered the west of the borough right up to Edgware and it feels like a bit of a homecoming.

“The community has changed incredibly. The diversity out there is staggering.

“If you go out on patrol, which I spend a lot of time doing, the different languages you hear is incredible. You get the full range of the world on your doorstep.

“There are aspects of diversity that make the job challenging and interesting in equal measures.”

Despite this change in the demographic make-up of the borough, which is now the second most religiously diverse in the country, DCS Tucker said the challenges were very similar to when he first worked here and burglary remained a persistent problem.

Although burglary rates are down on last year, a spike in the run-up to Christmas is fast closing the gap — a statistic DCS Tucker said gave him sleepless nights.

DCS Tucker is also spearheading a campaign to tackle gang crime, where gangs use children to “facilitate” drug-dealing and violence.

With all these projects, DCS Tucker insisted the onus was on police to ensure the public trusted the police and the criminal justice system.

To help remedy the high levels of unreporting from victims of racism and domestic violence, he said the Met was now focusing on identifying vulnerable people to make sure none were “left behind”.

He said: “We can’t do anything unless people tell us. We need to be victim focussed — what does the victim need? We have to make the criminal justice system responsive.

“We can’t expect people to trust us, we need to earn their trust on issues that affect them deeply.

“The job is still done by people responding and speaking with people face to face,” he added. “I would hope that never changes.”