Making our communities safe should be a focus of everyone who joins Devon and Cornwall police force.

Devon and Cornwall remains one of the police force areas in our country which has the lowest recorded crime rates (Crime figures | Devon and Cornwall Police (devon-cornwall.police.uk)

There is no doubt with secured funding from government and local council tax payers to achieve record numbers of police officers of 3610 by March this year, it’s time to turn our attention to the wider policing family.

One of these roles is the Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) acting as the eyes and ears of the police and on Friday (January 6, 2023) I attended with the Chief Constable a celebratory event in honour of them.

The PCSO ceremony saw 15 PCSOs receiving recognition of their service to policing as this year marks 20 years since their posts were created, with the first to join Devon and Cornwall in January 2003.

They will each receive a Long Service Award in recognition of this.

The event also provided a great opportunity to celebrate the work carried out by four individual PCSOs who last year were rightfully nominated for National Awards for categories of ‘Community Engagement’, ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity’, ‘Lifetime Achievement’ and ‘Bravery’.

The role of the wider policing family has been neglected in recent years because the focus has been on recruiting police officers. However, I have funded a variety of roles that were national first here in Devon and Cornwall including the first ever maritime PCSO in Ilfracombe harbour, trialling Police and Fire Community Support Officers along with Firefighter Specials and the sustained trial of Tri-Service Safety Officers in Cornwall.

However, PCSOs still have a place alongside our communities and on Friday I heard of the great contribution from individuals like learning sign language and running ‘Coffee with Cops’ – I also shared knowledge of my own experiences like PCSO Hayley Widger from Axminster, the main driver in setting up a drug and alcohol treatment centre.

Today, we have 156 PCSOs serving our communities and I am pleased that from January 30, 2023 recruitment will be open for more. Details can be found about the role and how to apply online: Devon & Cornwall Police PCSO - Vital Members of our Police Family - Police Recruitment (recruitment-dcp-dp.org)

Last Friday morning there were other reasons to celebrate when 19 newly recruited police officers, joined by friends and family attended their passing out parade.

Last week we closed my annual budget survey which had been running since mid-December and my team ran urban and rural focus groups, attended by local councillor advocates to gain an insight and understanding in to what communities really think about policing priorities and to help spot any common issues or concerns.