It is a privilege to serve the people of Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly as your police and crime commissioner. I will do all I can to ensure you have the best police service in the country and to keep you safe.
I will continue to listen to your views on what does and doesn’t work well with policing in your communities.
The Police and Crime Plan, which has been co-produced with the Chief Constable, sets out the strategic priorities for policing in Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly for 2017-2020.
My aim is to have excellent policing, co-ordinated wider public services and resilient self-supporting communities. In that way we can all play our part in keeping each other safe.
Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are fantastic places – my goal is to ensure that the peninsula remains the envy of the rest of the country.
Alison Hernandez
Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
The public’s perception of what constitutes local policing is often their local neighbourhood beat manager (NBM) or police community support officer (PCSO). When the public call the police for assistance, most often, it is a local response officer who will attend. When a crime or incident needs to be investigated – it will be probably be officers or specialist police staff from local investigation teams. Teams from roads policing and armed response also work locally.
In delivering the Local Policing Promise, in particular the promise regarding ‘Responsiveness’, it is important to consider all these police roles, not just neighbourhood teams.
Policing in your area will be:
The police and the PCC will be easier to contact - face to face and from a distance
The police and the PCC will keep you well informed on crime and policing issues - locally, regionally and nationally
The police will be there when needed and will provide clear feedback on what action will be taken
The police and the PCC will work with partners, the public and businesses to identify and resolve issues locally and to prevent crime and harm
It is important that you can contact the police easily so you can report crime and antisocial behaviour, raise concerns, seek help and provide information and intelligence to help the police.
When needed the police must be on hand and responsive. They have to understand your issues and provide feedback.
You must be told what the police force does and how well it is performing. People also need to know the role of the police in delivering services, such as mental health, parking and antisocial behaviour.
The PCC and Chief Constable will work with others including community safety partnerships to support communities.
So that you know how successful this Plan has been and so we can develop it throughout its life we will use the following methods to measure its success.
The best way to keep you safe is to stop you becoming victims of crime in the first place.
The PCC will focus on preventing reoffending and diverting people away from crime.
Through the Plan, the PCC will prioritise protection from harm of people at risk of abuse or who may be vulnerable.
Victims must be at the heart of all police work.
The police must be efficient and effective. The PCC will champion innovative service delivery so we stop more crimes, catch more criminals and do things more quickly.
The police are here to help keep us safe. In particular, they are here to come to our assistance when someone or something threatens our safety. To do this well they need to be efficient, effective and, most importantly, well connected to their communities.
This plan provides a direction to help communities become safer, more resilient and better connected.
Through this plan the PCC and Chief Constable will set a Local Policing Promise to ensure that policing is Accessible, Responsive, Informative and Supportive.
The PCC is also committed to a greater focus on keeping people safe online and developing a clearer approach to crimes affecting businesses.
We will work with Dorset Police and other partners to maximise efficiency and deliver quality services.
If you have found this Plan interesting and are interested in seeing the full version you can read it here.