Meeting with Police in Totnes
Superintendent Sarah Sharpe holds responsibility for policing in the South Hams and West Devon, a huge area reaching from Okehampton and Tavistock in the North as far as Salcombe and Dartmouth in the South. Not only geographically widespread, but also with widely different policing needs. We covered a range of issues from the ways in which the police are trying to improve public confidence in their service to the strategy for tackling key local concerns like antisocial behaviour and alcohol related crime and disorder.
The police do have concerns about underage drinking but are having success with joint operations with trading standards to catch up with problem premises. The police will always try to ‘unpick' an alcohol trail where they have had to take home an underage drinker or deal with alcohol related violence. Depressingly, the police still find that in most cases it is parents who have supplied the alcohol with which young people are able to ‘front load' before a night out. Thankfully, this part of Devon remains a low crime area and the risk of being a victim of crime is very small.
We talked about road safety in and around Totnes. To date there have been no fatal accidents or serious injuries on Totnes High Street. The main issues are around trying to improve safety for motorbikes and young drivers through programmes such as ‘learn to live'. The police are also working to involve the community in speed reduction measures; school speed watch has been especially powerful in the way that school children themselves ask speeding drivers to consider the consequences of their actions.
We talked about the role of police community support officers, PCSOs, who Supt. Sharpe feels are vital to community policing. What do you think?
