Crime rises in Devon

Nationally its fallen

Devon and Cornwall has seen an 11.7 per cent rise in crime over the past year and dropped from sixth to ninth in the table of the safest places to live.

Recorded crime from the 12 months to March 2025 rose to 121,028 from 108,351 on the previous year with violence against the person and theft particularly shoplifting accounting for the highest number of offences.

From June 2023 to June 2024 Devon and Cornwall Police was confirmed as having the sixth lowest crime rate out of 42 police forces in England and Wales, according to the latest statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). 

During one quarter of 2023, it was number one in the list.

Devon and Cornwall police and crime commissioner Alison Hernandez told a police and crime panel on Friday that it was now in ninth place.

The crime rate per 1,000 people has increased from 59.6 crimes per 1,000 people to 66.4 crimes per 1,000 people.

The constabulary has the second highest crime rate within its similar forces group (Warwickshire, Norfolk, West Mercia, Suffolk, North Yorkshire, Wiltshire and North Wales), behind that of North Wales.

Violence against the person accounted for 43% (52,383) of recorded crime and theft offences 24% (29,349) over the last year. 

Commissioner Hernandez said she was not alarmed by the rise in shoplifting as more offences were being reported.

“The one to be alarmed about, and what we should be doing more about, is the violence in our communities and particularly violence against women and girls as it is the bulk of it,” she said.

“Violence has been increasing for years and we have to do more to tackle it.

“The government has given a serious violence duty to local authorities, to the police and other partners so there is an expectation they will work together to tackle it a lot more.

“I am not involved in that duty but I do have a power of conveying and to hold the police to account for delivering on what they should be doing so I think there is some opportunities in the future about we can be doing together.”

She said that the rise in domestic violence over 30 years could no longer be seen as just a result of people becoming more confident to report.

“We should now be at the point where we are trying to disrupt it like we would if burglary started to suddenly rise. The police would do an operation and solve it.

“I think there is too much acceptance around violence. I am sick of us asking victims to do more when we need to chasing these perpetrators and stopping them in their tracks.”

Ms Hernandez said it was not all men who caused the violence but it was largely all women who had been a victim of it .

“It’s hard to have this conversation and not upset the decent men in our society but we want them to step up and help. We still have quite a journey to go on this.”

She said there were some fantastic men’s groups that had been formed in Devon and Cornwall such as Band of Brothers, Man Down and Man Culture who she wanted to bring together and make them more visible.

“We want to help support particularly young men be guided to be decent men so that we do not get this problem going forward into the future.

“ It’s a bit of an ambition that I have got to really help people play their part in society to tackle violence and also to help those going down that path to be better supported and mentored.”

Cllr Caroline Leaver (Lib Dem, Barnstaple, Devon County Council and North Devon Council) ) said it was “absolutely horrifying” that the domestic violence crime rate had been rising for 30 years.

“It is far too frequent within our society,” she said.

She asked if there was any link between that and what young people seem to be experiencing on social media with the pushing of a “misogynistic type of thinking” which was impacting behaviours and understanding of the world and young people’s role in it.

“It’s quite concerning and I know schools are trying to tackle that but it’s pretty difficult,” she said.