MORE police officers will soon be visible on the streets of Devon and Cornwall thanks to a £4.7-million grant from the Home Office aimed at strengthening neighbourhood policing.

The funding will support efforts to rebuild the vital connection between police and public, which is key to restoring trust and confidence within local communities.

As part of the initiative, 45 more police officers will be deployed into neighbourhood teams, 55 more Police Community Support Officers will be recruited for Devon and Cornwall Police, alongside 10 Special Constable volunteers. It will also fund extra investment in recruitment and associated costs.

The news has been welcomed by Alison Hernandez, police and crime commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, who called the funding “fantastic news” for the peninsula.

She said: “One of the things I hear most from residents and businesses, whether when out and about engaging with the public, through contact with my office, or via my regular surveys, is that they want to see more police officers on the streets.

“In fact, when I asked people in my ongoing Your Safety Your Say survey where they want to see extra investment in policing, 47 per cent of people to date said on the street where they live was their top priority.

“That’s why this funding is such fantastic news for the people living and working in our two counties. Increased, visible policing is proven to improve confidence and reduce crime, as has been shown by the successful hotspot policing initiative which has delivered excellent results across Devon and Cornwall over the past year.”

The funding forms parts of the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which aims to ensure every community gets the visible, proactive policing it deserves and makes £200-million available to police forces nationally in 2025/26 to support the increase of neighbourhood officers in years to come.

Assistant Chief Constable Glen Mayhew said: “Neighbourhood policing is at the centre of how we support our communities. This is an additional increase in our neighbourhood policing teams on top of the investment made by the force last year. This is an exciting opportunity enabling us to deliver more police officers and PCSOs into our local community activity.

“We will ensure these 110 officers and staff respond to what our communities need and have been telling us. They will be visible and accessible within our villages, towns and cities tackling antisocial behaviour (ASB) and local crime.”

The neighbourhood policing grant is in addition to £1-million funding from the Home Office to deliver hotspot policing in Devon and Cornwall for a second year.

In 2024-25, the project, which aims to reduce ASB and violence in areas identified as most affected delivered more than 22,000 hours of foot patrols by police and local authority street marshals.

Current data shows they attended 1,376 reported ASB incidents, made 204 arrests, used policing powers 949 times, and engaged with almost 79,000 members of the public. The initiative also benefited from an additional £200,000 funded by the OPCC for partnership patrols.