Victims information

Devon and Cornwall Police has published its victim strategy – ‘Supporting victims – Help. Cope. Recover.’

Devon and Conrwall Police has published its victim strategy – ‘Supporting victims – Help. Cope. Recover.’

This strategy is about building a safe, resilient, connected community for victims of crime.

Every day PCC Alison Hernandez meets people who have a personal experience of crime.

That experience may be as a victim, as a person close to a victim such as a partner, family member of friend, as a member of a community or as a witness to a crime or incident.

Their individual responses vary widely depending on the circumstances and this could be as simple as a shrug of the shoulders, to a person digging deep to put it behind them and move on with their life, to somebody who is intensely and traumatically affected by what has happened, unable to cope. Everyone is different.

People talk to Alison frankly and openly about their experiences; of the crime itself, how the police responded to a request for help and of the wider criminal justice system.

She hears the frustrations, the concerns, the thanks and praise, the suggestions of how we could do things differently. She is especially concerned about those people she does not hear and who remain silent.

There have been significant improvements in the response to the needs of people experiencing crime.

The Victim Care Network shows what can be done after listening carefully and responding to feedback.

There is always more that can be done; both the chief constable and PCC are committed to delivering excellent victim care according to individual need, to providing an efficient and effective policing service, to working with the voluntary sector and community safety and criminal justice partners to improve the service provided to people experiencing crime, and of course, to driving crime down.

Read the victim strategy here >

This victim strategy sets out what we aim to achieve and describes my priorities for the coming two years.