OKEHAMPTON Police officer Dave Woodland says he is excited to have begun his new role which focuses on young people and crime in West Devon.
PC Woodland took on the role of Youth Intervention Officer for West Devon, earlier this month, taking over from PC Keith Bowden who previously served as the youth affairs officer for the area.
PC Woodland said the core work of his new job would involve ?identifying and targeting those young people who might offend or are likely to re-offend and working with partnership agencies to reduce offending.?
PC Woodland said part of his role as youth intervention officer, required him to be a specialist problem solver, using approaches including the pioneering strategy of ?restorative policing?. In May, Devon and Cornwall Constabulary became the first police force in the country to initiate restorative policing training for all of its community officers.
PC Woodland said he would be visiting primary and secondary schools and other youth organisations in the area to try and support young people in getting more facilities to give them something to do, which can help reduce the boredom which can lead to anti-social behaviour.
One issue that PC Woodland said he would be lobbying for was the provision of additional play and recreation spaces for young people in the borough.
He added: ?I also want to get people to understand that the young people who are committing crime or behaving anti-socially are really the minority who give the rest a bad name.?
Among PC Woodland?s first duties was attending the Junior Life Skills workshops at Okehampton Army Training Camp which were attended by more than 600 children from primary schools across West Devon.
PC Woodland has been patrolling the streets of Okehampton for 16 years, spending much of the last decade as a neighbourhood beat manager. In June, he was awarded a long service medal for 22 years with the force.