Sergeant Charlie Wilkes (37) is originally from Croydon in South London and after university and a spell as a nursing auxiliary he joined Devon and Cornwall Police first as a special in 2014, becoming a regular PC in 2016.
He loves the great outdoors, running most days of the week, kayaking and surfing.
Charlie is also currently running in stages the entire South West Coast Path.
He explains: “Before Kingsbridge, I was at Exeter general CID where we investigated complex and serious crimes, fraud, serious offences, drug trafficking and things like that.”
He found things very different down here:
“It’s very much a change of pace.
“In Exeter there’s always about 400 things going on that I had to keep my eye on and it’s a very different kettle of fish down here.
“We’re lucky to live in a low crime area. The main issue that is reported to us is anti-social behaviour.
“The first thing is we need to know about it.
“If there’s ASB you can report it on our e-mail address.
“Once we know about it we can see patterns forming and get people out and about at the relevant times.
“We can figure out who’s causing it then stamping out the problem.”
So are there any particular trouble spots?
“There’s been a little in East Allington which seems to have calmed down a bit.
“Two NBM’s (Neighbourhood Beat Managers) who are Constables have done a really good job in driving it down.
“There is a little bit going on in the park the opposite side of the river from the skate park.”
Charlie described his team:
“At the moment got two officers, PC Simon Cooper and PC John Lonsdale who were both born and bred down here and know the area really, really well.
“They’re great officers to have on my team.
“We’re looking to get a third officer to join us over the summer as it gets much, much busier.
“We’ll have lots of events and the population can triple or quadruple.
I asked Charlie how they operate:
“We are a 24/4 policing operation out of Kingsbridge.
“The front office has only just reopened but the police station has always been open and we’re getting more patrol officers working out of Kingsbridge.
“We also plan to have a presence based on the harbour at Salcombe over the summer.”
.Finally, what were his priorities?
“The main thing is to try and reduce crime.
“I want people to feel safe in the area that they live in which is the main point of neighbourhood policing and to engage with the public.
“It’s very much about being out and about.
“I’m a very outdoorsy person so it won’t be unusual to see me walking up and down Kingsbridge and Salcombe along with surrounding villages.”
The police station is at: Montagu Close, Kingsbridge TQ7 1AG
The local e-mail address to get straight through to the neighbourhood team is: [email protected]
For emergencies you can call 999 or non-emergencies 111