Head of Bailiwick Law Enforcement Ruari Hardy has been reflecting on four decades of police work, as he prepares to step down from the top job on 31 October.

Ruari Hardy became a police officer with the Metropolitan Police Cadet corps in 1984, and has led Guernsey Police since 1 January 2019.

He will hand the reins over to Damian Kitchen next week.

Mr Hardy says the new Chief will face a few challenges.

"Recruitment and retention is an ongoing challenge for law enforcement. Keeping pace with criminality and technology is another big challenge.

And although we work very closely with Home Affairs, who have always been very supportive during my tenure, the public purse is forever being squeezed, and having the money in public services is an increasing challenge."

In four decades, Mr Hardy says the introduction of technology has had the most significant impact on criminality.

"Whether it is scam and people being conned out of money, to indecent images of children being widely circulated.

People have become so dependent on their mobile phones and their lives are so centred around the internet.

Society really has changed massively since I was a young bobby on the streets in the 80s."

Reflecting on controversy over the summer, when videos of Guernsey police were shared and criticised on social media, Mr Hardy says he hopes the public will continue to question motives.

"If there is a long series of events which is a part of an incident and someone takes a very small segment of that footage and presents it in a certain way, which they know is not an appropriate way, that is an example of using social media and technology for not good purposes."