Michael joined West Yorkshire Police (WYP) in September 1980 and after serving as a patrol officer and community constable he worked with the Divisional Patrol Group, then the Auto Theft Unit. He was appointed as a Detective Constable in 1994 and worked on many murder investigations where he often performed the role of exhibit officer. He feels that it is this task where his keen eye (that would serve him well later) for detail manifested itself.

Michael then entered the crime prevention discipline, first as a traditional Crime Prevention Officer but within two years that of a Designing Out Crime Officer (DOCO). Michael considers this to be a very rewarding period of his career as even now he can visit or drive by developments that were fundamentally changed for the better because of his role as the DOCO. It was during his time he wrote “Planning for Crime Prevention” which was adopted by Bradford District Council as its supplementary planning document on designing out crime. This policy is still in use today and therefore continues to keep communities safe.

In 2010 Michael became an external member of the Applied Criminology Centre at University of Huddersfield and also retired from policing after 30 years. Michael was only retired six days when he began working for Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (Police CPI) as a Development Officer within Secured by Design.

Later, he was successful in being promoted to Senior Technical Officer, a challenging role that underpins SBD’s Police Preferred Specification standard, a requirement for all manner of products utilised within an SBD development. In 2019 Michael was promoted again, this time to a new role, that of Head of Operational Services before becoming Deputy Chief Operating Officer in 2022.

Finding ways to influence designers, manufacturers, architects, planners, local government and many others to do all that they can to stop, or design out opportunities for crime, take him back to the reason why he first joined West Yorkshire Police 44 years ago.

Outside of work Michael’s passions are family first – he has been happily married to Sally for over 40 years and they have three grown up children and nine grandchildren - dining out, travel and Formula 1.