Mr Craik takes up his post on 1 April

Mike Craik, who takes up his post on 1 April, said he wanted to "build trust and confidence" in the community.

He has already spearheaded an operation targeting graffiti hotspots across Tyne and Wear.

But he says he wants to expand the use of new powers to seize cash and assets of criminals to "bankrupt them and get them off the streets".

Mr Craik said: "We will hunt criminals down and arrest them at every turn, disrupt their activities, get them off the streets.

"We will bankrupt them by seeking to seize their criminal assets at every opportunity, not just for serious offences, and use those assets to pay for more frontline policing.

"The public, quite rightly, have high expectations of Northumbria Police. My aim is that we live up to them by delivering the service the public wants from us, by listening and responding to our communities."

The force recently launched Operation Wipeout, which targets graffiti, vandalism and other criminal damage, particularly on housing estates.

Mr Craik says his next objective will be to tackle drunken violence and street disorder, which he says is hampering the region's effectiveness to capitalise on big cultural renewal projects underway across the force area.