Tavistock area police will be available at Morrisons supermarket for an informal chat about any concerns.

The neighbourhood police team will be at the supermarket on Sunday, February 22 between 11am to 12:30pm.

A spokesman said: “Please feel free to come and have a chat with us about what matters to you.”

The neighbourhood policing teams consist of team leaders (police sergeants), beat managers (police officers) and police community support officers (PCSOs) who are accountable to the community.

A key element of the role is to undertake community engagement, such as supermarket, to understand community concerns and update them on police activity in order to build confidence.

The team looks after over 34,000 residents across 250 square miles including Tavistock, Princetown, Yelverton, Horrabridge, Lifton, Bere Peninsular and Mary Tavy.

The local teams work in partnership with other colleagues (alcohol licensing and youth intervention) and externally (local councils, environmental health and social landlords) to solve community issues.

A spokesman said: “Our neighbourhood policing aims to intervene at the earliest possible opportunity to prevent crime and harm escalating.”

Last December the following crime was reported in Tavistock, six incidents of violence, five of anti-social behaviour, one of criminal damage/arson and one of possession of weapons.

The policing priorities are anti-social behaviour, drugs, road safety and rural crime.

To deal with anti-social behaviour the local teams act ‘proportionately but robustly’ to support communities affected by anti-social behaviour.

A police spokesman said: “We are working with our safer communities partnership, social housing providers and West Devon Borough Council.”

The neighbourhood teams aim to deal ‘swiftly and robustly’ to drug related activity: “To achieve this we require the support of our residents by reporting any concerns or suspicious activity to us.”

Road safety improvement is aimed at reducing casualties on West Devon's roads by working with community speed watch volunteers.