We have taken £7 million worth of drugs off our streets

ALISON HERNANDEZ IS THE POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONER FOR DEVON, CORNWALL AND THE ISLES OF SCILLY One of the things I really love about my role is the fact there is no such thing as a typical week. On Tuesday, for example, I had no idea the next morning I would be getting up at the crack of dawn to join officers and Avon and Somerset police and crime commissioner Mark Shelford to observe a raid on a suspected drug dealer’s home.

The home, and another in Torquay, had been linked to county lines drug dealing connecting London with the Westcountry. Three teenagers from Devon were arrested in relation to suspected class A drug supply, human trafficking and child exploitation offences. As well as the arrests, drugs phones, cash and weapons were seized during searches of properties.

A further man was arrested in London as part of the operation, which comes after Avon and Somerset Police’s county lines team spent months gathering intelligence. They tracked a suspected drug operation which was believed to be importing crack cocaine and heroin into the area and exploiting children to move drugs. In two years the Operation Scorpion partnership has taken more than GBP7 million worth of drugs off our streets and resulted in our forces doing more drug disruptions than almost all the other 38 in England and Wales.

There was less good news as I headed back to HQ when I heard planners were unable to accept my planning application for a new police station in Exmouth. Unfortunately a preliminary survey indicated there might be bats roosting there. Despite this modest setback, my programme to reopen 18 police enquiry offices around the two counties continues, with Okehampton Police Station reopening its doors to the public on January 8.

I know local people will be keen to have this facility in their community once again. All the former police enquiry offices to be reopened have now been selected, apart from four. I am working with the Chief Constable to decide where these will be, using a rationale including geography, financial feasibility, operational requirement and community support.

Another decision I will make soon relates to the police precept (the amount we all pay for policing via our council tax).

The draft budget I am working on will maintain police officer numbers at historically high levels and will go before the next meeting of the police and crime panel on February 2.