As we move towards the Police and Crime Commissioner elections in May, I’ve been reflecting on my first term in this office which, due to the pandemic, has actually been a year longer than it should have been.

That said, I really feel our office has made the most of this unexpected extension.

Between 2016 and 2021 the force has welcomed an additional 317 officers, as well as 10 tri-service safety officers in rural Cornish communities. Seven community responders – firefighters with full police powers – have also been deployed in collaboration with Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, with four police and fire community support officers serving rural North Devon. All officers are also better equipped thanks to the roll-out of body-worn video cameras and tasers for everyone on the frontline.

We’ve overseen the construction of the £29 million Exeter police station, built a new £2.2 million station in Liskeard and provided a new temporary station in Barnstaple. We’ve helped improve CCTV in St Ives, Wadebridge, Bodmin, Dartmouth and Okehampton and enabled a £420,000 state-of-the-art system in Torbay.

We’ve set up Safer Towns schemes, launched the Vision Zero South West road safety partnership and initiated the Turning Corners project, a violence prevention programme which helps combat an emerging culture of gangs and knife crime.

We commissioned the Operation Encompass teachers’ phone line to help detect domestic abuse, a scheme which won us a World Class Policing award and has since been rolled out nationally.

Our restorative justice service won an award from the Howard League for Penal Reform, we trialled payments for special constables in readiness for exploring a specials reserve force and we made reporting crime to the police even easier through webchat, online and email.

One of the most significant projects during my first term was the proposed merger with Dorset Police – something I eventually decided not to go ahead with. Our office consulted almost 12,000 people across the three counties and it was clear this was not what they wanted.

When Covid struck last year, we didn’t let this stop us from cracking on with our important work.

During the past 12 months we committed £500,000 to tackle antisocial behaviour in 20 hotspots around Devon and Cornwall, which included us being the first force to provide specialist covid marshal patrols. We were an early adopter of virtual courts, delivered our Devon Together newspaper to reassure communities during the pandemic and have even sponsored a ground-breaking project which will see prisoners building a prefabricated house for vulnerable residents in Torquay. Last month we commissioned a £20 million victim support contract, the largest contract issued by any PCC outside London.

Whatever happens in the elections on May 6, I have been privileged to have played my part in the force’s journey.