North Ayrshire’s top cop has retired after 30 years on the beat - his last seven of those as area commander for the region.

Chief Inspector Brian Shaw stood down on Friday, speaking to the Herald about his highs and lows of his tenure.

He said: “30 years is a long time, but without a shadow of doubt, the best time has been the last seven years in Ayrshire.

“The local authorities have been terrific, the relationships and partnerships have been excellent and I want to thank those individuals for the support they’ve given me over my tenure - they will know who they are.

“There is still much to be done but we all recognise the work we’ve done together to make North Ayrshire a better place to live.

“I’m just one person, albeit I was the leader, but I have to say thanks to all the officers and staff in North Ayrshire - they are a fabulous bunch of people and community is served really well by them.”

Chf Insp Shaw’s leaves the legacy of reducing house breaking by 70 per cent and car crime by 50 per cent, a cause close to his heart as his family were victims of a house break-in themselves.

He said: “Over the last five years, we reduced house crime by about 70 per cent, still on a downward trend, similar was car crime, dropped by 50 per cent.

“A person’s biggest asset is their house or car - it can really impact them if they are violated, it had an impact on my children.

“When I first arrived, the first thing I wanted to do was tackle the level of house breaking and car crime.

“I built a small team of four to target those two things and we saw really good results particularly with car crime as we found out eight youngsters between15-18 year olds were doing the bulk of the crime.

“We targeted it and it worked.”

He was promoted into the area in 2014, after a stint in Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Glasgow City, Dunbartonshire - Ayrshire, and the headquarters of the former Strathclyde force.

The final year of his career has been in the shadow of two major events, the policing through the Covid-19 pandemic and more recently, COP26 in Glasgow.

He continued: “The communities we serve offer the police full support.

“The pandemic shows for me the support of the public. We’ve been in a rock and a hard place times and I’d have to praise the public and those who I have worked closely with during the last 18 months who have in the main all done the right thing.”

And on supporting Glasgow through COP26: “It was an amazing event to hold in Scotland, the way it was policed, and managed, with people who - quite rightly - came to protest over serious issues.

“I think we managed to allow that to happen.

“I don’t know any other part of the world who have done it as well as we have done.

“I really mean that, to actually engage with the public and protestors the way they did, I think a vast group of people left with a more positive view of Police Scotland and how we do things.”

When asked what makes a good officer, Chf Ins Shaw said: “To be a good cop you have to have the skill and ability to keep your head whilst others around about you are losing theirs.

“Sometimes you don’t get things right and some days are really hard, when something unpleasant has occurred or you can’t solve everybody’s problems that you want to solve, it is that ability to reset and continue to keep up the good fight.”

The Herald wishes Brian Shaw all the best on his retirement.