Happy New Year West Devon.

I hope you were afforded the opportunity to spend time with family and friends over the Christmas holiday.

Your Neighbourhood Policing Team took pleasure in seeing people enjoy the Dickensian Evening in Tavistock at the beginning of December. The evening always provides excitement in the build up to Christmas with magical late-night shopping that transports you back in time.

We also attended the St James Primary School Christmas Concert, kindly organised by Okehampton Baptist Church. It was wonderful to enjoy festive performances, including a lovely performance by the St James Primary School Choir, helping to spread Christmas cheer throughout the community.

The team worked hard over Christmas keeping everyone safe. There were 461 incidents reported to police across West Devon in December which included 93 emergencies.

We are very proud to report that anti-social behaviour has decreased by nine per cent over the last year and consequently we are the best performing team across the local policing area.

Anti-social behaviour remains our top priority and in partnership with West Devon Borough Council we have delivered on this in 2025. The implementation of Public Spaces Protection Orders has meant that the team can deal with incidents more robustly by dispersing individuals or groups that are behaving in an anti-social way.

Over the last year we have seen a reduction of crime in theft (23 per cent) and burglary (36 per cent). We’ve had an increase in arsons across Tavistock but please be assured that we identified and arrested an 18-year-old male from the Tavistock area. He remains on police bail whilst enquiries continue. We are continuing to conduct increased patrols and have additional measures in place to bring offenders to justice.

A period of exceptionally dry and windy weather contributed to the spread of four uncontrolled wildfires in the West Anstey Common area and one at Meldon Common in Chagford over the Christmas period.

The deliberate setting of unauthorised fires in our public open spaces is a criminal offence that destroys wildlife habitats, threatens historic sites and puts lives at risk. Arson is always treated seriously by police and can carry a maximum of life imprisonment where a person’s reckless behaviour has caused life to be endangered.

I’m personally excited about neighbourhood policing for West Devon in 2026. As part of the UK’s government Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, we are expecting a further two Neighbourhood Beat Managers and two Police Community Support Officers to join our team.

Presently we have one Neighbourhood Team Leader, five Neighbourhood Beat Managers and two Police Community Support Officers. Whilst we are a small team, I promise you that they are all passionate about doing what’s right and try to be visible to all where practicable. The additional resources coming in 2026 can only boost visibility.

I personally appeal to you all to sign up to ‘Devon and Cornwall Community Messaging (Alert)’. Registration is free, simple and easy – just use the simple sign-up feature on the home page online.

This technology enables real-time community messaging and activity so you can keep up to date with what’s going on in your area.

Once again, I wish you all a safe, healthy and happy 2026!

Your Sector Inspector, Dan Jones