Devon and Cornwall is now the third safest place in the country to live. Our crime rate is exceptionally low, it has fallen year on year for the last five years and continues to fall. The number of incidents of anti-social behaviour is reducing. Yet fear of crime is at an all time high and people believe that anti-social behaviour is increasing.

So what are I and my staff doing to address this? Most importantly we are listening to what you tell us. My team is made up of a combination of Police Officers, Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), and Police staff working together round the clock to be available to you when you need us and to work with you and partner agencies to ensure our service to you is the best it could possibly be.

My staff know that I expect them to 'go the extra mile' on each and every occasion and to always ask you if there is anything else they can do. Our aim is that your lasting thoughts of your experience of the police is positive, you feel we have listened to you and done absolutely everything we could for you.

Many of you may never have needed the services of the police but you will still have a view of how well you think we are doing. In order to improve your feeling of well-being in your community you told us that you wanted us to deal effectively with crime.

In the last year all my officers have become qualified investigators. Not just CID officers but every response officer and neighbourhood officer has worked for and achieved this qualification.

My aim was to professionalise our investigations so that it doesn't matter who deals with your crime, they are sufficiently skilled to do the best job possible for you.

I expect them to outline a detailed investigation plan but also a victim and witness care plan which identifies your particular needs to reassure you and keep you updated with developments. We may not always be able to bring your offenders to justice but we will do everything within our power to achieve some closure for you and ensure that you don't become a victim in the future.

You told us you wanted us to tackle anti-social behaviour. This has received a high profile in the national media. No one should have to suffer from the behaviour of others in a way that reduces their quality of life or feelings of safety.

In March last year I pulled together a team of a Sergeant and five Constables who we deploy across my policing area of South Hams and West Devon. Their remit is to support the neighbourhood officers tackle neighbourhood priorities and work predominantly on anti -social behaviour and anti-social driving.

The performance of my staff is measured jointly with West Devon Borough Council and South Hams District Council through surveys which ask how satisfied you are that the Police and local authority are tackling anti-social behaviour and crime that matters in your area.  I work closely with the chief executive of the council, David Incoll, to ensure that we use our resources as effectively as possible together.

In order to ensure that we don't have anyone in our area who is vulnerable to risk or harm, I monitor incidents where we have had three or more calls to the same location in a three-month period. Risk assessments are carried out and a problem -solving plan is developed with other agencies.

Sustainable solutions are not always easy to find but we work with those people blighted by the lack of consideration of others or directly targeted by them so that they are part of the solution and know we have their safety at the heart of what we do.

You told us that you want us to interact more with you. All my officers understand that if they patrol together, you are less likely to want to talk with them. I expect all my officers and PCSOs to patrol on their own and wherever possible on foot, walking and talking with the people in our communities and learning what the issues are.

We ask you through our Partners and Communities Together (PACT) consultation process to identify the key policing issues for you in your community and the top three in your town, village or hamlet are the ones that we use to focus our policing activity. So please get involved in PACT so that you can influence what we do for you.

Please also tell us when you notice a difference and when something that was a priority is no longer so much of an issue. We run PACT events at community action days and meetings but you can also tell us what you think by filling in a PACT postcard which you can pick up from any of our police stations, tell a member of my staff or email us through our website.

If you have internet access please take the time to visit http://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk">www.devon-cornwall.police.uk and go to the Neighbourhood pages. By inputting your postcode you can see who your neighbourhood officers are and what they are doing to tackle your priority areas for your neighbourhood. You can email them direct from here. If you would like to meet and discuss an issue or simply just meet them, please get in touch either this way or through 08452 777444.

You told us that you wanted us to keep you updated and to tell you what we are doing. This year we opened our doors and welcomed the public into our police stations on open days to share all the good work with you.

My Sector Inspectors send monthly letters to the people they work with in their areas to update them on local policing issues. I have been out on foot in the main towns in my area, talking to people about how they feel my officers and staff are supporting them.

Through the coming year I intend to do this in the villages as well, so rather than always passing through, I will make the time, whenever I can, to stop and talk. It is always a pleasure to pass the time of day with people and find out what they truly think.

Finally, from me as your Police Commander, I promise that all my staff will treat you fairly and will deliver our services to you in line with the ten commitments in the Policing Pledge to the best of our ability and will serve you with integrity, honesty and respect in everything we do.

My one plea to you is to tell us how we can improve, how we can help you and how we can work together to make sure that the South Hams and West Devon remains such a wonderful place to live and work.