FOR Chief Inspector Sunita Gamblin, becoming one of Derby's most senior police officers was one of the proudest moments of her career.

As the third highest-ranking officer in the city, she is responsible for ensuring Derby's 25 safer neighbourhood teams are delivering the best policing service possible.

But Ch Insp Gamblin's area of responsibility does not stop there.

As Derbyshire police's community safety manager for Derby, she is also in charge of a newly-formed guns and gangs prevention team and leads officers on helping to tackle violent extremism.

She said: "Being promoted to this role has been one of the highlights of my career. It is an important role and one that I am looking forward to developing. Myself and the staff in Derby are committed to providing an excellent service."

In her role, Ch Insp Gamblin looks after about 180 officers spread out across the city's safer neighbourhood teams.

They are made up of police officers, police community support officers, special constables and partnership members such as councillors, head teachers, park wardens and housing officers.

Officers consult residents on the main issues in their area and then set about prioritising and tackling them.

Ch Insp Gamblin said the process was about helping police pinpoint what matters most to residents so resources can be directed to those issues. Officers also carry out daily patrols in their areas.

Last week in the Derby Telegraph, Derbyshire Chief Constable Mick Creedon revealed that a Government threat to cap spending could mean the loss of up to 60 police officers.

Mr Creedon said it was likely that those cuts would come from neighbourhood policing.

Ch Insp Gamblin said: "It is a concern because any cuts could have a detrimental effect on communities.

"What I would say is that we would look to ensure the impact was as minimal as possible.

"If cuts were made, we would look at ways of ensuring the quality of service our neighbourhood officers provide was not affected.

Ch Insp Gamblin, who joined the Derbyshire force in 1989, also heads up a gang prevention team based at Derby Community Safety Partnership.

The team, which includes youth workers, police and housing staff, was set up following the death of 15-year-old Kadeem Blackwood, who was shot dead on the Caxton Street recreation ground in November.

She said: "Gang violence is unacceptable and can have a massive impact on communities, in terms of crime and the fear of crime.

"The multi-agency gang team will get all local services to work together in an effort to support those who have been identified as vulnerable or at risk of joining gangs."

Ch Insp Gamblin has spent 10 years of her policing service in Derby, having previously worked at the Pear Tree, Cotton Lane and St Mary's Wharf police stations.

For the past 20 months, she has been a firearms commander, which involves making decisions on the deployment of firearms to incidents. Her husband, Nick, is an inspector.