Devon and Cornwall Police is the
territorial police force A territorial police force is a police service that is responsible for an area defined by sub-national boundaries, distinguished from other police services which deal with the entire country or a type of crime. In countries organized as federations, ...
responsible for policing the
ceremonial counties
The counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England and informally known as ceremonial counties, are areas of England to which lords-lieutenant are appointed. Legally, the areas i ...
of
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
and
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...
(including the
Isles of Scilly) in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
. The force serves approximately 1.8 million people over an area of .
History
The force was formed on 1 April 1967, by the amalgamation of the
Devon and Exeter Police,
Cornwall County Constabulary
Cornwall County Constabulary was the Home Office police force for the county of Cornwall, England, until 1967.
The force was formed in 1857. It absorbed Bodmin Borough Police in 1866, Liskeard Borough Police in 1877, Launceston Borough Police in ...
and
Plymouth City Police. These three constabularies were in turn amalgamations of 23 city and borough police forces that were absorbed between 1856 and 1947.
Between 1856 and 1947, police in Devon and Cornwall used a number of different names. They were gradually absorbed into two of the existing forces called Devon and Exeter Constabulary and Cornwall County Constabulary, except Plymouth City Police which remained separate. In 1967 the three remaining forces were amalgamated into one called Devon and Cornwall Constabulary or Devon and Cornwall Police.
Chief constables
*19671973 Colonel
Ronald Berry Greenwood
Ronald is a masculine given name derived from the Old Norse '' Rögnvaldr'', Hanks; Hardcastle; Hodges (2006) p. 234; Hanks; Hodges (2003) § Ronald. or possibly from Old English '' Regenweald''. In some cases ''Ronald'' is an Anglicised form ...
*19731982
John Cottingham Alderson
John Cottingham Alderson (28 May 1922 – 7 October 2011) was a senior British police officer and expert on police and penal affairs.
Alderson was born in Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire, and educated at Barnsley Technical College. In 1938 ...
*19821984?
David Albert East
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
*1984?1989
Donald Elliott
*19892002 Sir
John Stanley Evans
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Seco ...
(knighted in
2000 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 2000 for the United Kingdom and New Zealand were announced on 31 December 1999, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2000. The ''Honours list'' is a list of people who have been awarded one of the various or ...
)
*20022006
Maria Wallis
*20072012
Stephen Otter
Stephen Otter (born 24 May 1962) is a former chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, a post he held from joining the force in January 2007 until his departure in March 2012. He was succeeded by Shaun Sawyer.
Otter was previously the de ...
*20132022
Shaun Sawyer
Shaun Sawyer QPM was the chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Police until 2022, having been appointed in February 2013 to succeed Stephen Otter.
Sawyer began his police career in 1986, as a uniformed constable in London. His Metropolitan Po ...
*2022present Will Kerr
Officers killed in the line of duty
The
Police Roll of Honour Trust and
Police Memorial Trust list and commemorate all British police officers killed in the line of duty. Since its establishment in 1984, the Police Memorial Trust has erected 50 memorials nationally to some of those officers.
Since 1814, the following officers of Devon and Cornwall Constabulary and its predecessors were killed while attempting to prevent or stop a crime in progress:
* Town Sergeant Joseph Burnett, 1814 (shot attempting to disarm two drunken soldiers)
* PC William Bennett, 1875 (injured arresting a man for assault)
* PC Walter Creech, 1883 (stabbed by a man he warned)
* PC John Tremlett Potter, 1938 (fatally injured by two burglars he disturbed)
* PC Dennis Arthur Smith, 1973 (shot by a suspect he was pursuing)
* PC Christopher Francis Wilson, 1977 (contracted a fatal illness after being spat on during a disturbance at a football match)
* PC Joseph James Childs and PC Martin Ross Reid, 1978 (drowned after their car was swept into the sea during a storm)
Oversight
Since 5 May 2016, the
Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner
The Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner is the police and crime commissioner, an elected official tasked with setting out the way crime is tackled by Devon and Cornwall Police in the English counties of Devon and Cornwall. The post w ...
is
Alison Hernandez
Alison Selina Hernandez (born December 1973) is a British politician, and the current Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall, representing the Conservative Party. She was elected to the post on 5 May 2016, succeeding the previous ...
, who represents the
Conservative Party.
The police and crime commissioner is scrutinised by the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel, made up of elected councillors from the local authorities in the police area. Before November 2012, the force was governed by the Devon and Cornwall Police Authority.
Organisation
, the force has 3,593 individual
police officer
A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...
s, 549
special constables, 320
police community support officers (PCSO), and 2,236 staff.
Training for new recruits is held at the Headquarters in Middlemoor. For constables, it consists of eight months training and a two-year probationary period. For special constables it consists of three months of online learning and practical weekends training and a two-year probationary period or less, dependent on the number of tours of duty. For PCSOs, it consists of 18 weeks training and a 15-week probationary period. Recruits receive their warrant card and uniform in the first two months of training.
The force is divided into four
Basic Command Units (BCU), each commanded by a
Chief Superintendent. Geographically larger BCUs are further split into Local Policing Areas (LPAs), under a
Superintendent, which are further sub-divided into Sectors, each under an
Inspector. The Plymouth and South Devon BCUs only contain one LPA, being divided directly into sectors. Most sectors contain a police station, while in Plymouth there are numerous neighbourhood bases or police stations (Crownhill, Charles Cross, Plympton, Beacon Park, Devonport Fore St., Devonport Exmouth Rd., Plymstock).
Each BCU will have several specialist teams, including Patrol,
Neighbourhood Policing Teams, a
Criminal Investigation Department
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is distinct from its Special Branch (though officers of ...
and various pro-active policing units to target persistent criminals and focus on specific operations.
The four BCUs are:
*Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly BCU
**East Cornwall geographic LPA
**West Cornwall geographic LPA
*South Devon BCU
*Devon BCU
**Exeter East and Mid geographic LPA
**North and West Devon geographic LPA
*Plymouth BCU
**Plymouth geographic area
Force contact centre
The force contact centre is located at two sites: police HQ in Middlemoor, Exeter and Crownhill police station in Plymouth, both operating 24/7. Calls from all parts of the force are assigned to the next available agent, whichever site they are working from. Calls are answered by trained civilian staff, with police officers in some supporting and supervisory roles. Both 999/112 and non-emergency calls are answered by multiskilled staff, with other duties including the Force Switchboard, found property recording, crime recording, requests from other police forces, emails from the public, and the force website. Radio dispatch officers are located in the control rooms at both sites and deploy police officers following calls for service from the contact centre. The two control rooms use the national Airwave emergency service secure radio system, which is due to be replaced in the early 2020s.
Operations department
The operations department provides uniformed operational support to the force, and is responsible for traffic policing and tactical support.
Roads policing Unit
Devon and Cornwall Police patrol a section of the
M5, as well as many 'A' roads. The unit is split up into seven road policing sectors. The unit also has officers that patrol on motorcycles.
Force Support Group
The Force Support Group (FSG), previously called the Tactical Aid Group (TAG), is predominantly responsible for public order, marine operations, searches and dealing with potentially violent offenders. It is divided into several sections, including two trained in firearms and one in marine operations.
The FSG's Marine Support Unit, also known as FSG D Section, is responsible for
underwater search and
marine operations.
Dog section
The force has
police dogs, which are trained in a variety of roles including drugs dogs, explosives dogs and firearms support dogs.
The unit, which is headed up by an
inspector, is based at headquarters in Middlemoor, in
Exeter
Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal c ...
.
Armed Response Unit
Devon and Cornwall Police's Armed Response Unit (ARU) is a sub-department of the operations department that is tasked with responding to incidents where firearms are involved. These are the only officers in the force who are routinely armed.
Air Operations Unit
Air support is provided by the
National Police Air Service (NPAS), which operates a
dedicated police helicopter out of
Exeter Airport.
The now-closed Air Operations Unit previous flew a
MBB/Kawasaki BK 117. It took delivery of a
Eurocopter EC145 in April 2010, with its call sign being OSCAR 99. The unit was able scramble in two minutes and could reach most areas of the force within 15 minutes.
Force crime department
The force crime department contains the central units of the force's
Criminal Investigation Department
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is distinct from its Special Branch (though officers of ...
(CID), which also has
detective
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads t ...
s attached to the larger police stations. It is headed by the force crime manager, a detective chief superintendent. It also comprises the major crime branch, covert operations unit, intelligence unit, performance and co-ordination unit, scientific and technical services unit.
Other departments
*The Firearms Unit is responsible for all firearms training, planning and licensing.
*The Contingency Planning Unit formulates long-term plans to deal with major incidents, including security for VIP visits, counterterrorist operations and reaction to terrorist attacks.
*The Force Planning and Consultation Unit formulates policy and plans and monitors public opinion on policing matters.
*The Professional Standards Department deals with force discipline and complaints against officers.
Uniforms and equipment
Headgear
In 2020, the force moved to a gender neutral position on headwear, permitting any officer to wear a (traditionally) male or female hat either the
custodian helmet, or a peaked cap with a chequered
Sillitoe tartan band, or a bowler hat, also with Sillitoe tartan, under all circumstances.
Traffic police headgear is the same as that for any other vehicle patrol but has a white rather than a black top, originally designed to aid visibility before the advent of fluorescent fabrics.
PCSOs wear a peaked cap or bowler hat, but with a blue band.
Tri Service Safety Officers (TSSOs) wear a peaked cap or bowler, with a grey band.
Uniform
When on operational duty, officers wear black wicken layer tops with black trousers and a black fleece with POLICE written on the chest and back. All officers are required to wear stab vests when on operational duty.
Collar numbers for constables and sergeants, along with rank insignia for sergeants and above are worn either on epaulettes on the shoulder, or on patches on the upper arm, depending on the item of clothing. PCSOs wear a similar uniform, but with blue epaulettes rather than black.
Formal dress comprises an open-necked tunic, and a white shirt/blouse with a black tie for officers of all genders.
Constable
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...
s and
sergeants have collar numbers on their
epaulette
Epaulette (; also spelled epaulet) is a type of ornamental shoulder piece or decoration used as insignia of rank by armed forces and other organizations. Flexible metal epaulettes (usually made from brass) are referred to as ''shoulder scales ...
s, sergeants wear rank insignia on their sleeve, while all higher-ranked officers wear name badges and their rank on their epaulettes. Gloves are sometimes worn.
Personal equipment
From 2018, both officers and PCSOs were provided with personal issue Combat Application Tourniquets
for first aid and self aid purposes.
From 2019, officers were issued with Spit Guards, a transparent mesh that covers a suspect's face should they spit at officers.
From 2019, after over a decade of false starts, operational officers and PCSOs were issued with Body Worn Video
Police body cameras.
Police vehicles contain a variety of equipment, which can include straight batons,
traffic cone
Traffic cones, also called pylons, witches' hats, road cones, highway cones, safety cones, channelizing devices, construction cones, or just cones, are usually cone-shaped markers that are placed on roads or footpaths to temporarily redirect tr ...
s, road signs,
breathalysers
A breathalyzer or breathalyser (a portmanteau of ''breath'' and ''analyzer/analyser'') is a device for estimating blood alcohol content (BAC), or to detect viruses or diseases from a breath sample.
The name is a genericized trademark of the ...
,
stingers, speed guns and more.
Vehicles
Devon and Cornwall Police use many different makes of vehicles from several different car manufacturers for different purposes. All marked, operational vehicles use yellow and blue retro-reflective
battenberg markings
Battenburg markings or Battenberg markings are a pattern of high-visibility markings developed in the United Kingdom in the 1990s and currently seen on many types of emergency service vehicles in the UK, Crown dependencies, British Overseas Terr ...
, with the force's crest.
Performance
Devon and Cornwall are amongst the safest counties in the UK, with the 4th lowest
crime rate per 1000 people in England. Recorded crime dropped by 12% between June 2009 and July 2010, compared to an 8% drop across England and Wales. In this survey, there were drops in all categories of crime except sexual offences and drug crimes, accounted for by increased reporting and more effective targeting of drug offences. Confidence in the police and public perceptions of crime were also better than the national average.
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary graded Devon and Cornwall Police as 'fair' for confidence and satisfaction, and 'good' on local crime and policing and protection from serious harm. In detail they were graded as 'excellent' for reducing crime, suppressing gun crime and suppressing
knife crime
Knife legislation is defined as the body of statutory law or case law promulgated or enacted by a government or other governing jurisdiction that prohibits, criminalizes, or restricts the otherwise legal manufacture, importation, sale, transfer, po ...
. They were rated 'low/medium' for all sections of 'value for money' including cost of policing, cost per household, number of officers and PCSO's and proportion of policing cost met from council tax.
[ ]
Budget cuts
Proposed regional merger
In 2006, the
Home Office announced plans to reduce the number of police forces in the UK from 42 to 24 in an attempt to save money. The plans were abandoned later that year due to lack of funding for the mergers, however the idea has resurfaced many times.
The proposed idea was for Devon and Cornwall Police to merge with
Gloucestershire Constabulary,
Wiltshire Police,
Avon and Somerset Constabulary and
Dorset Police.
The plans were criticised by all the involved forces, stating that it would lead to poor quality service and a reduction in local policing.
Austerity
The program of austerity from 2011 had an impact on the force:
* The rural crime grant, worth £1.8M to Devon & Cornwall, about the cost of 70 officers, was abolished.
* The central government grant was cut by 20%.
* In comparison to other forces, the council tax precept was low. Rises in the precept were capped by central government.
The organisation was forced to cut officers, from 3,500 to 2,810. It also had to cut PCSOs and police ltaff, losing around 350 posts.
Many stations were closed and sold, controversially including a brand new station at
St Columb Major
St Columb Major is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Often referred to locally as ''St Columb'', it is approximately southwest of Wadebridge and east of Newquay
Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 200 ''Newquay ...
.
The service offered to the public was scaled back: for example in the past victims of car crime or burglary would have seen an officer in person. Since the austerity cuts, the majority of these crimes are 'desktop investigated' by a centralised team.
A partial reversal of the cuts was announced in 2019 by the (then) new Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who pledged to replace 20,000 of the 21,000 officers cut in England and Wales since 2011.
Devon & Cornwall officer numbers are not expected to return to their 2010 levels until 2023. There are no plans nationally to reverse the cut in police staff.
Proposed merger with Dorset
Later, from 2015, plans to merge with Dorset Police were brought to an advanced stage and an outline business case supplied to the Home Office. In the final stage of talks, three of the four parties agreed to proceed, being the Chief Constables of both forces and the Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) of Dorset. However, Devon & Cornwall PCC
Alison Hernandez
Alison Selina Hernandez (born December 1973) is a British politician, and the current Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall, representing the Conservative Party. She was elected to the post on 5 May 2016, succeeding the previous ...
withdrew her support for the merger, in a U-turn. It is thought her change of heart was a result of pressure from the local authorities, notably members of
Cornwall Council
Cornwall Council ( kw, Konsel Kernow) is the unitary authority for Cornwall in the United Kingdom, not including the Isles of Scilly, which has its own unitary council. The council, and its predecessor Cornwall County Council, has a traditio ...
and
Torbay Council and the plans were shelved.
Other activities
Devon and Cornwall Police Pipes and Drum Band
The Devon and Cornwall Police Pipes and Drum Band is a band made up of pipe and drums players who play on behalf of the police force in aid of charity. The band plays at fundraising events for
Devon Air Ambulance,
Help for Heroes and other events, as well at police occasions such as officer graduations.
The band is made up of officers and employees of Devon and Cornwall Police, as well as some members who are not related to the police. The band is not funded or related to the police force but do have permission to use their name and uniform.
Devon and Cornwall Police Rugby Football Club
The Devon and Cornwall RFC was formed in 1967 following the amalgamation of the Devon, Cornwall and Plymouth Constabularies clubs. A few midweek and Sunday games were played and players were encouraged to play for club sides on Saturdays. However the Saturday team was disbanded in May 1995 due to operational commitments. Today the force still manages to bring together a team when necessary, and play in the National Cup Competition every year.
Social media
In 2015,
BBC News Online
BBC News Online is the website of BBC News, the division of the BBC responsible for newsgathering and production. It is one of the most popular news websites, with 1.2 billion website visits in April 2021, as well as being used by 60% of the ...
reported that the force had been involved in a number of social media "blunders", including officers making inappropriate use of Facebook and Twitter, and a Twitter campaign image that had to be withdrawn when it was pointed out that it appeared to depict a police
riot officer beating a person lying on the ground with a
truncheon.
Stella the Dog
Stella was a dog that was seized in 2014. Devon and Cornwall Police said the pit bull-type dog was considered potentially dangerous. The department put the dog in a 3 ft by 9 ft cage in Devon until 2016 when a destruction order for Stella was passed by Torquay Magistrates' Court. The dog was reported to have not had exercise and was left in the cage for 24 hours a day for nearly two years. The courts had until 8 March 2016 to appeal the euthanasia of Stella. Sgt Allan Knight, from the Devon and Cornwall Police dog handling unit, said: "There will always be some dogs who cannot get walked by staff because of the danger they possess. We are bound by the court process."
Deaths following Devon and Cornwall Police contact
There have been a number of deaths of members of the public who have come into contact with Devon and Cornwall Police.
*Thomas Orchard, 32, was arrested and taken to a police station in Exeter, where he was restrained, in October 2012. He died in hospital seven days later.
*Marc Cole, 30, died in Falmouth, Cornwall, in May 2017 after a
taser
A taser is an electroshock weapon used to incapacitate people, allowing them to be approached and handled in an unresisting and thus safe manner. It is sold by Axon (company), Axon, formerly TASER International. It fires two small barbed d ...
was deployed for 42 seconds, resulting in a cardiac arrest. He had taken cocaine the same day. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) concluded that the performance of its officers was not below standard.
*Andrew Pimlott, 32, died from burns in April 2013. Pimlott, who had drenched himself in fuel, was tasered, which ignited the fuel and caused his burns.
*Leslie ("Les") Douthwaite, 38, died in April 2015 after being restrained, face down, by police.
*John Coysh, 35, died in police custody in September 2016, from cardiac
arrhythmia during alcohol withdrawal.
*Simeon Francis, 35, died in a cell in Torquay police station on 20 May 2020 after being arrested in Exeter. Simeon died of epilepsy, and a subsequent investigation concluded that he was not discriminated against, and there was no case to answer against the force in relation to his death.
Statistics
The force receives 500 to 800 emergency 999 calls,
plus 2,000 to 2,500 non-emergency 101 calls every day.
In the year ending January 2016, the force dealt with 5,151 missing person reports.
Firearms officers were deployed on 351 occasions in the year ending March 2020.
See also
*
List of law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories
*
Law enforcement in the United Kingdom
Law enforcement in the United Kingdom is organised separately in each of the legal systems of the United Kingdom: England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Most law enforcement is carried out by police, police officers serving in regi ...
*
Penhallow Hotel fire, major 2007 unsolved incident investigated by the force
References
Further reading
*Campion, Roger (1997) ''The Call of Duty; police gallantry in Devon & Cornwall: decorations, orders, medals and commendations for gallantry and devotion to duty awarded to officers who have served in the police forces of Devon and Cornwall''. Tiverton: Halsgrove in association with the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary
External links
*
Devon & Cornwallat
HMICFRS
Devon & Cornwall Constabulary Roll of Honour*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devon And Cornwall Police
*
Constabulary
Constabulary
Police forces of England
Government agencies established in 1967
1967 establishments in England
Crime in Devon
Crime in Cornwall