Salcombe’s annual crime figures were announced at last week’s Annual Town Meeting.

Between April 1, 2016 and April 1, 2017, 111 crimes were reported in the town, an increase from 70 in the previous year.

Salcombe’s beat manager, PC Jo Pengilly explained that the increase was due to more burglaries and thefts from shops.

PC Pengilly explained that four people were arrested for the spate of marine crime in the town, but that “there was not enough evidence to charge” the suspects.

However, the arrests had “allowed them to gather intelligence on where the equipment was going” and after the arrests, there were no further reports of marine crime in Salcombe.

Police also dealt with illegal fishing and traffic operations in the town, and have been focusing on crime prevention, particularly on preventing marine crime for the coming summer months.

Sgt David Green, neighbourhood team leader also attended the meeting, and explained that the increase in acquisitive crime in Salcombe follows a national trend.

Sgt Green said that crime is only one aspect of the work that police do in the local area. He said: “For every crime reported, we receive four or five calls that have nothing to do with crime. So out of the 111 crimes recorded in Salcombe, we would have received more than 400 non-crime related calls.

“These are increasingly around safe-guarding vulnerable people and working with other agencies to deal with adult mental health issues and keeping people safe.”

Sgt Green mentioned the anticipated reduction in PCSO numbers over the next four years, and said that the question of whether Devon and Cornwall Police’s remaining 150 PCSOs will be based in rural or urban areas is “yet to be answered”.

“We’d like to retain the PCSOs we have,” Sgt Green said.

He added that “policing in the South Hams needs to take into account the geographic proximity to Torbay and Plymouth - both high crime areas - as well as the geographic realities of policing a large rural area and coastline.”