‘THERE are difficult times ahead’ — those were the words of the section police inspector for West Devon following the announcement of potential staffing cuts to Devon and Cornwall Police.

With the force looking at having to make major savings by 2020 which could include the loss of up to 760 police officers, all 360 PCSO posts and a further 180 jobs within the organisation, section inspector for West Devon Mark Sloman has admitted that such cuts will have a ‘huge effect on policing across Devon’.

But he wished to reassure the public that Okehampton will still be protected by a 24 hour service — though other aspects of policing will have to be stripped back to meet the budget targets.

He said: ‘From West Devon’s perspective, first of all I want to reassure people they won’t be losing any 24-hour policing in West Devon. 24 hour policing will remain. So if someone is burgled or there’s an ongoing issue and they dial 999, they will get a response from officers based in West Devon, both in Tavistock and Okehampton as they have done in the past.

‘That won’t change. We have to deliver that service, we have an obligation to do that and of course we will do that. We have to look at other parts of policing and it may be we are not able to provide a service as we are doing at the moment. We have to look at what we have to provide, what we’d like to provide and what is really very nice to provide. First of all, we have to provide certain services.

‘It’s all around risk, threat, harm, vulnerability of individuals. So if someone calls us to report a crime we will look at that crime. The first thing we will do is look at that individual and what the “risk, harm, threat” is around that individual.

‘If there is a youngster who we need to put safeguarding measures in place for, that is one of our priorities. We will seriously look at that incident. Everything we look at will be around risk, threat, harm, vulnerability of individuals. We’re going to have to make some difficult decisions on what we actually investigate in the future.’

Inspector Sloman admitted that minor crimes — like drivers fleeing petrol stations without paying for fuel or many instances of shoplifting — are currently not investigated by police due to constraints. He also suggested large retailers, particularly supermarkets, will ‘have to have responsibility’ to help curb crime in their shops by taking measures including CCTV and employing their own security staff.

He also said that Okehampton Police Station, which is due to close in 2019, was too large and ‘not fit for purpose’ with many offices standing empty after several departments, including a traffic unit for the A30 and a unit for dog training were either relocated or discontinued.

He said: ‘The public are concerned. The station is due to go in 2019. But there will be a police presence in Okehampton. It will be a neighbourhood hub of some kind. We’re not going out of the town. We are just relocating in the town. If that means we share accommodation with other partners or have an accommodation on our own I don’t know. I don’t know what that will look like to be honest.

‘People will see a huge difference in policing in five years’ time and the make up of Devon and Cornwall’s Police in five years’ time compared to what we are used to now. Until all the number crunching is done we’re not going to know any more at the moment.

‘People will not see a presence of police officers or PCSOs like they have been used to in the past. That won’t happen. So we have to make some really difficult decisions around how we efficiently and effectively police West Devon, the towns and the villages as well. We will prioritise around that.

‘There will be a presence in the town, both in Okehampton and in Tavistock. That will be 24 hours as it has been in the past. You just will not see your PCSOs and neighbourbood teams walking around as you may have done in the past. A lot of people say we don’t see that anyway.

‘I think it’s really important to put the message across that we are still present in West Devon and we will be. We will answer 999 calls. We will deal with each case appropriately based on what we find. That’s really it, where we are coming from.

‘There are difficult times ahead. We would ask for the support of the public to understand that. The fights on a Friday and Saturday night, if we get called, we will police them as normal.

‘It’s the extra stuff, the stuff that maybe we’ve taken on in the past that we will lose. We’ve taken on quite a lot. The expectations of public for the police is high. We’re not always going to be able to deliver that in the future.’