Devon cop numbers to rise

But it will add £10 to council tax

Devon and Cornwall could have more police officers than ever if its proposed budget is agreed today, Friday.

The region's police and crime commissioner wants to stick up its proportion of council tax by an average of £10 per bill from April, bringing its share of a Band D property to £246.

That should give it enough to add nearly 700 more coppers, bringing the total to 3,610 across Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. That's the largest number since the force was created in 1967.

When theDevon and Exeter Constabularies combined with Plymouth and Cornwall in that year, it had only about two third of the current number of bobbies, at 2,143.

The commissioner also want to invest £8 million supporting victims and preventing people from committing crime.

in the latest Office for National Statistics crime figures for the year to September 2021, crime rose slightly in the region, and Devon and Cornwall lost its second spot in the league table of safest police force areas, dropping to third.

At its peak in 2015, the force had 3,500 officers but government cuts put paid to that.

If the budget is approved, the force's income to £379 million with 59 per cent coming from central government and 41 per cent from council tax contributions.

A total of 5,316 people took part in a survey run by the commissioner, Alison Hernandez, to inform her budget decision-making.

She said: “It was made clear to me in 2016 that there was a desire in our communities to recruit more officers and a willingness to ‘pay more to get more.'

“Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are challenging areas to police, with rural, coastal, island and city communities and with crime challenges like violence and drugs. I therefore made officer recruitment a priority and am pleased that with our community’s support we have been able to work towards a position where there will be more officers In Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly than ever before.

In the current financial year the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner secured central Government investment of more than £1.5m to spend on services for residents of Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly through partnerships like Plymouth Together, which was put in place to support those affected by the Keyham shooting of August 12 last year.

Devon and Cornwall Constabulary was formed in 1967 from the merger of the

The force is currently open for recruitment. Anyone considering a career in policing can find out more and register an interest at www.devon-cornwall.police.uk.