Dear residents of Nidderdale
As you may or may not know, your local Neighbourhood Policing Officer, PC820 Bill Hickson has now retired from North Yorkshire Police (NYP) and is enjoying his well earned break. As promised in an earlier community message sent by Bill, a replacement was sought for his post.
As such I am happy to report that I am his replacement. I have already taken post and am now working out of Pateley Bridge. I am looking forward to working with you.
I had best introduce myself. I am PC1893 Mike Spittlehouse. I was born in Nidderdale, Ramsgill to be exact, and am the son of late PC1001 Pete Spittlehouse who some of you might know. Dad was one of the local police officers for Pateley Bridge for 20 years until his retirement in 2001. I spent the first 10 years of my life growing up in the police house in Ramsgill, in and out of Patelely Bridge Station, then moved to Summerbridge after NYP estates sold off the police houses in the 90s. From there I attended Upper Nidderdale High School, then St Aidens 6th Form in Harrogate and onto university. I left Nidderdale briefly to attend university, returned non the wiser and decided to train as a secondary Geography Teacher. In 2006, after quickly deciding teaching was not for me, I saw the opportunity to join North Yorkshire Police and have not looked back. I spent four very happy years sharing my career with my father, who sadly in 2010 passed away after a brief fight with cancer.
In the 17 years I’ve worked for the force I have been based mostly in Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon areas including a brief stint in Pateley prior to 2011-2012 financial crisis that changed policing forever. The majority of my career has been spent as a Response PC. I have also spent 11 years as a Lv2 trained Public Support Officer for which I was deployed to London Riots in 2011, London Olympics 2012, Kirkby Misperton Fracking Protests 2018 and many football matches, public events, EDL marches in between. In 2020 I moved from the front line to the Harrogate Investigation Hub where I made it my business to investigate and convict domestic violence perpetrators, violent offenders, burglars, thieves etc. It was here where I developed my investigation skills and a passion for safeguarding / crime prevention. Longing to be back on front line and out of the office I transferred to the Harrogate Outer Safer Neighbourhood Team in 2021 and took the post of Safer Neighbourhood Officer for the town of Boroughbridge.
I have always held a love of Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale as a whole as it is my home. I have always seen (as a consequence of my father’s legacy/influence) myself as a rural PC which is where I initially directed my career. As I said earlier I had attempted to build a career in Pateley in 2011-2012 however following the financial crisis and Windsor Report recommending 20% cuts across the board I was forced to move / work in a more central location. I am happy to say things have now come full circle and I am finally, in my eyes at least where I belong. It is safe to say you will not find another officer in North Yorkshire Police as passionate, invested in serving your community as I am in this moment.
I have a vision for policing in Nidderdale that I will share with you in a second post on Nidd Plus website later this week. Do come back!!
2 thoughts on “Hello from Nidderdale’s New Police Officer, Mike Spittlehouse”
Welcome back home Mike, you certainly know the area, and are clearly passionate about it, Nidderdale has changed a lot over the years, and policing is very different to when Pete was on the beat around Pateley. (I remember him well, a grand bloke).
I hope you have a long and enjoyable time in your new role, and I look forward to meeting you. Stanley Lumley..
I remember going grouse beating with his father.