Police to patrol crime hotspots for 15 minutes

Ch Insp Tim Evans has said 15 minutes is enough time to "deter crime"

Police officers will be asked to patrol crime hotspots for 15 minutes once every three days in a bid to deter crime.

Devon and Cornwall Police will start the scheme in 2024 with a budget of £1m from the Home Office.

The patrols will aim to tackle violence and anti-social behaviour, according to Ch Insp Tim Evans who is leading the project.

He said: "By putting a patrol into an area once every three days for roughly 15 minutes, walking all over an area and being seen by members of the public, you deter crime."

'Finesse to it'

He added: "Fifteen minutes doesn’t seem very long but evidence suggests that is the amount of time you need to be present for most people in that geographical area to see you.

"It seems like an easy process, foot patrol in its basic form, but there is a finesse to it.

"We will use crime data and mapping and into next year we can share this with other towns across our geography.

"This will become business as usual in Devon and Cornwall then."