POLICE have vanished from the streets and rural communities have been abandoned – but police can ‘turn out ten police cars because of a stranded seal somewhere’, councillors have claimed, writes local democracy reporter Daniel Clark.

Devon County Council’s cabinet last week heard tales of police numbers dropping while the crime rate rises, the police across Devon and Cornwall having just 35 road policing officers across the two counties, and that the increase in cyber-crime has left the police struggling to cope.

And Cllr Roger Croad, who is the chairman of the Police and Crime Panel, questioned the priorities of the police as ‘they can turn out ten police cars because of a stranded seal somewhere’.

He also criticised the police and crime commissioner, Alison Hernandez, who voted against the merger of Devon and Cornwall and Dorset police forces, saying that she ‘missed a trick’.

In response, Ms Hernandez said that she did not recognise Cllr Croad’s anecdote regarding ten police cars and an abandoned seal, and that the consultation work over the summer showed her there was little support for a merger with Dorset Police.

Cllr Alan Connett, Liberal Democrat Group leader, said: ‘The numbers of officers have declined but the crime rate has increased. Between October last year and September this year, 105,455 crimes were recorded in Devon and Cornwall, up ten per cent. In 2008, there were 3,529 sworn police officers in Devon and Cornwall, but currently there are 2,959. The police and crime commissioner wants to increase by 500 and if that were to happen, we would still be under the number that we had in 2008.

‘Numbers of PCSOs are down from 421 in 2013 to 257 now, and for many, many, years, the police have welcomed and relied on the support on those who volunteer as special constables. In 1995, the police had over 1,100 special constables, but currently, there are less than 400, with just 397 specials. Over that time, the police portion of council tax has gone up, but the level of policing that people experience is declining.

‘There are very real issues in rural communities where people say it is not worth calling the police or reporting matters and that people feel unpoliced and unwanted.’

In response to the debate, Ms Hernandez said: ‘Sadly this debate has used incorrect or dated figures. Based on our year-end projections we will have 2,969 full time officers in the force, which is one of many numbers used in this discussion which we simply don’t recognise.

‘In some respects Cllr Connett is correct though, we don’t have as many officers in the force area as we did a decade ago, and neither does any force in the UK but in Devon and Cornwall we have been exceptionally busy recruiting and training more officers to increase numbers to 3,015 by April 2020. That has meant that this year we were able to buck the national trend and add to our ranks, with 45 more officers compared to the previous year.

‘Making this happen is no small task – to increase force strength to hit our target we need to recruit and train 575 new officers. This is in addition to 20 joint funded blue light officers for our rural communities and eight officers who joined us in July from the Police Now training scheme.

‘It’s also true to say that police budgets, and police priorities, are under intense pressure at the moment. My team and I are lobbying hard for fair funding to enable Devon and Cornwall Police to maintain standards.’