A TOP police officer who spent 22 years of his career in North Yorkshire has announced his retirement.

Andy Parker is now Chief Constable of Warwickshire Police, but in his time in North Yorkshire oversaw some of the biggest incidents in the region, including the Great Heck rail disaster of 2001, the York and Selby floods of 2000, and the Dunkeswick air disaster in 1995.

Mr Parker served as Assistant Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constable and was appointed Chief Constable in Warwickshire in December 2011, and announced this week he will retire in March 2015 after almost 32 years on the force.

He said his time in North Yorkshire - where he started as a PC in 1983 - had helped prepare him for his long and varied career.

Mr Parker, who is 53, said: "The Dunkeswick air disaster was the first we had had in North Yorkshire of that nature for some time and I was an inspector then, given the role of family liaison, so I had the job of dealing with the families of people who had lost their lives, which was humbling.

"But I learned a lot about dealing with families and communicating during major disasters. You hope you don't have to use them again, but when Great Heck happened a couple of years later, I performed the same role again."

Mr Parker left North Yorkshire in 2002, but still has relatives and friends in Dunnington and around York, and regularly returns to the area. He said the move to Warwickshire was made easier by the similarities between the forces.

He said: "The thing about North Yorkshire and Warwickshire is they are like big families, they are just the right size so you can still know most people by name and everyone sort of knows everyone and when there's a problem, everyone clubs together.

"North Yorkshire was good for learning policing over a lot of rural areas not a lot of police officers and you rely on the public. The public were incredibly supportive of the police so you learn to police with the public. You can't do it alone in North Yorkshire and rely on the public to support you. I've got some really fond memories and still get a lot of friends in the area. From what I hear it's still a great force, and long may it last."