POLICE officer of 22 years Lindsey Walke has taken over as leader of the West Devon Police Neighbourhood Team.

Sgt Walke is in charge of Tavistock and West Devon’s PCs and PCSOs and has spent the majority of her career in Plymouth, most recently as a custody sergeant in a cell block looking after people who have been arrested.

In that job she dealt with some of the most vulnerable people in society and issues that arose from that and had to experience negative attitudes towards the police.

Her role at Tavistock, which was previously held by Sgt Chris Chaloner, was ‘massively different’ she said.

‘It’s lovely to work in this historic town with a good community where crime is generally low despite what people might think,’ said the sergeant.

‘I am trying to reassure the public. Crime is often a perception, this is a safe area to live and from what I have seen a lovely area to live.

‘My role is about community policing and a lot of long term problem solving which includes safeguarding and all partner agencies mucking in together. It’s not just about crime either.

‘With a small community policing team like we have here it can be challenging but we can call on other teams around and all work together to achieve our goals.’

Sgt Walke said through ongoing local engagement, the police were addressing the problems that were most important to the people of West Devon.

She said what the community wanted could be very different to the priorites of the Devon and Cornwall Police and the Government.

Whilst the Government’s priorities were tackling violence against women, modern slavery and domestic incidents, in West Devon it was speeding and anti-social behaviour.

She said it was the job of PSCOs to engage with the public and find out what concerned them — the offfcers were always holding drop in sessions in towns and villages and meeting with local church and youth groups and other organisations.

Drop in sessions are advertised on the police facebook page and will be published in the Tavistock Times.

Last week it was the turn of Lifton Community centre where a member of the neighbourhood policing team was present at a coffee morning event for two hours for people to come along and have a chat.

Sgt Walke said people should also not be afraid to stop an officer in the street and tell them what their concerns were.