Call me Dirty Harriet!
Hard-boiled police chief tells crooks: I’ll seize your granny’s flat
HER no-nonsense attitude to fighting crime has earned her a fearsome reputation within the police force.
So it’s no wonder that this police chief has earned the moniker ‘Dirty Harriet’ – and is now turning her attention to the ‘hardcore baddies’ terrorising her home town.
Chief Superintendent Emily Higham – who was appointed district commander for Wigan, Greater Manchester, in September – yesterday warned lawbreakers she would ‘seize their granny’s flat’ as part of a crackdown on crime.
In a passionate speech, the married mother-of-two, 50, said: ‘There are those that are out there raping and pillaging, people walking around carrying knives and involved in organised crimes.
‘For those hardcore baddies? We’ll get your belly against my
‘I’m going to come for you’
counter... We are going to target you, we are going to arrest you, we are going to make sure that you are on our radar. I’m gonna seize all your assets, I’m gonna seize your granny’s flat and your mum’s car and I’m going to come and target you because you are a blight on the communities.’
Mrs Higham returns to Greater Manchester Police (GMP) following a secondment as the head of the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit. She was the first woman to hold the post.
During her 30-year career she was also GMP’s first female detective chief inspector and superintendent in the Serious and Organised Crime Unit. She has worked in some of the region’s toughest neighbourhoods, including Bury, Salford, Cheetham Hill and Moss Side.
It was during Mrs Higham’s stint in Moss Side that she started being referred to as ‘Dirty Harriet’ – a nod to Dirty Harry, the ruthless cop played by Clint Eastwood in the 1971 blockbuster of the same name. I was posted to the gun and gang unit in Moss Side because I was the first female head of organised crime,’ she said.
‘I remember saying to my husband: “What do I know about guns and gangs? And it’s on the other side of Manchester.” And he said to me: “Shut up Dirty Harriet and get on with it!”’
The police chief, who was handed a lifetime achievement award by the British Association for Women in Policing in 2019, added: ‘I always work 110 per cent but now I’ll work 150 per cent because what I do today will affect my children tomorrow.’