More officers on Devon and Cornwall streets as specialist roles scaled back

The public will see 121 more police officers on the frontline in Devon and Cornwall by April next year.

Many officers are being moved from specialist roles across the Devon and Cornwall constabulary to the frontline in a concerted effort to address vacant positions that have been left unfilled. It follows concerns raised by communities over a lack of police presence.

Chief constable of the force James Vaughan told a meeting of the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel that the process had been “excruciatingly difficult” to ask some of his best specialist officers to go and help out their colleagues in neighbourhood and response and traffic roles.

But he said it was his “overriding desire” to put people back on the frontline and rebuild neighbourhood policing.

He said there had been a disproportionate amount of vacancies in this area and the public were concerned over this and the lack of  police officers on the streets.

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A total of 71 more officers would be on patrol functions by the end of December and all 121 would be in place by April 1. If anyone left, they would be replaced straight away on a one in, one out, basis, said the officer.

In addition £4.7 million of additional funding from the government for neighbourhood policing had guaranteed a further 50 officers, 50 PCSOs and 20 special constables.

The force’s criminal investigation department (CID) will not be affected by the overhaul named as Operation Resolve but some departments working on investigator training programmes and force support will be and those currently concentrating on counter terrorism and road safety issues.

CC Vaughan said the operation was “working at pace”.

The officer was first brought as interim chief constable 11 months ago after the substantive chief constable Will Kerr and acting chief constable Jim Colwell were suspended pending separate investigations by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
He was asked to stay on to stabilise the force, address leadership challenges and improve performance.

Under his watch, in July Devon and Cornwall Police was removed from enhanced monitoring by the police inspectorate after nearly three years of being placed under special measures.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) cited improvements in several key areas including emergency call handling, crime recording, and the management of sexual and violent offenders.

CC Vaughan said: “We have regained some stability, got our deputy back (Jim Colwell) and Mr Kerr has retired. We can now see a clear path forward in the leadership team.”

As part of a rank review because the force is seen as “too top heavy” CC Vaughan has removed an assistant chief constable role and a number of chief superintendent, superintendent and inspector positions and the next step is to cut 30 sergeants from the 650 in the force.

The money banked from this will be ploughed back into frontline policing and also be used to address £2.2 million of savings that need to be made in the workforce.

A review of the constabulary’s six custody centres was also being undertaken, as they were “very expensive” to run, the panel was told. Other forces coped with less and the chief constable said he would rather see more  money spent on neighbourhood policing.

He is actively recruiting for more constables and PCSOs to join the team.

Panel members welcomed the move to increase officers on the frontline but Cllr Chris Penberthy (Lab, Plymouth) said there was a lot of rumour around diverse communities teams being shut down, which had caused disquiet locally.
He was told that no decision had been taken on this area of the force yet.

Police and crime commissioner Alison Hernandez called the chief constable’s actions “bold” and “a game changer”.