Croydon’s new borough commander has admitted feeling responsible for the August riots but asked the public to judge him on his response.

Chief Superintendent Dave Musker was drafted in on the night of August 8 to coordinate Croydon’s response to the ongoing public disorder as departing borough commander Adrian Roberts was called away.

In an exclusive interview with the Croydon Guardian, his first since that night, he described how after the shift he went back to his base in Sutton and could see the smoke rising over Croydon’s skyline in the dawn light.

He said: “I wondered what on earth had happened. I still feel some personal responsibility.

“It was the most challenging work of my service as a police officer.

“Policing public order is always about judgement calls. I policed what I had in front of me.”

The former Wandsworth borough commander said he had not fully come to terms with that fateful night, but that lessons needed to be learnt quickly.

He said he felt it might not be the end to civil unrest given the austerity in society but that the reviews, both internal and external, would offer guidance.

He identified two main challenges in Croydon as he began his first week in the top job.

The biochemistry graduate said: “First of all I want to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour and I need to improve confidence of local people in the police.

“The issue is to make sure of the remorseless and relentless targeting of people who harm our community.

“I will review our resourcing to put more people on the front line to enhance our response to criminality.”

Despite facing cuts to his numbers, Chief Supt Musker said he would not use it to make excuses.

He said: “Everybody could do with more resources but that is not the critical issue.

“I have got to make the best with what I have got.

“It is a redundant argument. Every public service has to cut its cloth according to the means it has.”

With a background in tackling so-called gang culture in Brixton and Wandsworth, the University of Liverpool fellow said he would use all lawful and ethical means to convict offenders.

He said: “My job is to look at changes over the next four years and for us to deal with that.

“If the criminality of young men and sometimes women is a growing problem of course we will target them.

“But the critical issue is to look at active criminals and take them out.”

He said he faced performance targets, like every other Borough Commander, in March and should be judged then.