South Hams residents told they can help fight against crime

People in South Hams have been urged to tell the authorities about potential crimes

South Hams residents are being urged to report crime to help tackle it.

The South Devon and Dartmoor Community Safety Partnership presented its latest report to a meeting of South Hams District Council.

The council's head of environmental health said residents could lead in the fight against anti-social behaviour, drugs and other crimes by speaking out.

Ian Luscombe said it was about making sure the authorities had "good intelligence to act on".

He added: "A lot of that can be driven by people like yourselves, representing your communities."

The partnership is made up of South Hams, Teignbridge and West Devon councils along with police and health partners.

'Please tell us'

Jacqi Hodgson, Green councillor for Dartington and Staverton, said she was worried about the level of drugs in towns and stories she heard about knife crime.

She said: "It feels to me that the people behind the problems are hard to reach."

Senior environment officer Claire Birch said the partnership was doing a lot of work with parents to identify when children were being drawn into trouble.

She added: "If I could say one thing it would be 'please tell us'."