Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez will provide almost £24m additional money so that Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer can put more police officers on the streets by 2020.
On Friday the PCC will publish her first Police and Crime Plan, entitled Safe, resilient and connected communities, with a vow to help keep people safe by improving the public’s connection to police.
The Plan comes as a result of the peninsula’s biggest consultation into policing issues, which Ms Hernandez commissioned last summer.
“Our consultation clearly showed the public wants better connectivity with, and accessibility to, its police force,” she said.
“This plan provides a direction to help communities become safer, more resilient and better connected and makes a Local Policing Promise to ensure that policing is accessible, responsive, informative and supportive.
“My aim is to have excellent policing, better co-ordination with the wider public services and resilient self-supporting communities. In that way we can all play our part in keeping each other safe.
“Devon and Cornwall Police is already a good force. Through better connection, clear direction and appropriate investment it can be one of the very best in the country.
“By freeing over £10m from reserves, by striving for further efficiencies, by raising money through the policing precept* and changing other spending priorities, I have provided the Chief Constable with the funds to be one of the only Forces in the country to increase its number of officers.
“It is for the Chief Constable to decide the make-up of his workforce so that he can best deliver the priorities set out in this plan.
“He has now set out his intentions and I will support him in that, but I will expect him to deliver, in particular, the increased connectivity that the people of Devon and Cornwall have said is important to them.”
Key points in the Plan:
