TACKLING rural crime and a radical solution to prevent domestic violence will be among Alison Hernandez’s top priorities if she is re-elected for a third term.

Eight years into the job, Ms Hernandez, 50, says she is only just getting started on many of her projects. These include the cross-border Operation Scorpion to crack down on county lines drugs operations and the prisoners building homes programme.

“We are trying to sort out some of the problems in society and we are just getting started,” she said. “A lot of my energy during the last term has gone on Operation Scorpion and we have disrupted 4,000 drug operations in two years, working with the PCCs across the South West.

“Prisoners building homes took three years to get off the ground. It started in my force area of Torquay and now we have a regional housebuilding programme.”

Currently 82 homes are being built across 14 developments by the scheme set up to allow prisoners to be employed by modular housing providers to build low carbon homes for local communities and vulnerable people. It aims to reduce reoffending by ensuring prisoners have the skills to help them get jobs when they are released.

“You need to understand the problem you are trying to solve, and in this case it is homelessness, because every time people reoffend the excuse is they haven’t got a home or a job and they go back into their old ways,” said Ms Hernandez.

Ms Hernandez, who previously worked in local and regional government heading community safety partnerships before taking over as PCC from her Tory predecessor Tony Hogg in 2016, cites her achievements as getting the number of police officers to a record high of 3,610, thanks to government funding and extra money from taxpayers.

She has added an extra £100 to council tax bills for police services in the eight years she has been commissioner.

Over the period, £5.5 million of safer streets funding has been used to improve CCTV and street lighting, and to help to make women and girls feel safer, particularly in Exeter and Plymouth. A partnership called Vision Zero has invested £5m in road safety.

Thirteen police station enquiry offices have reopened under her watch. Five more openings are planned this year.

With domestic violence on the increase and accounting for much of the violent crime in the region, Ms Hernandez says this will be one of her priorities if she is re-elected.

“We cannot just keep doing more of the same – that is helping victims to escape and supporting them to report. We need to do more. If I can do what I did with Vision Zero by getting all the partners on board, I think I can do something similar to tackle domestic violence. There will also be a huge push to tackle serious and organised rural crime, the stealing of animals and property.”

And she said she knows people want police officers to be more visible. “I think they are more visible than they were, but people want more.”

Ms Hernandez said she had delivered on her promises made in 2016 to make police stations open to the public after they were shut during the austerity years and to recruit more police officers.

“I have got a track record of doing what I say, and that is important,” she said. “I don’t think most people realise what this job does. I spend 50% of my time scrutinising the police and 50% trying to tackle crime, reduce crime and a lot of it has nothing to do with the police.

“Prisoners building homes, we started it here. It’s gone regionally and will go nationally in the next term. That is the sort of radical ideas we are coming up with to solve society problems.

“If you want someone like that, vote for me.”