One of our reporters saw first hand the impact of the police in the local community when she accompanied officers tackling drugs and dangerous driving.
Scarlett Hills-Brooks, who works as a journalist at The Cornish Times and The Cornish and Devon Post, went out and about with Devon and Cornwall Police to help raise awareness of two of their safety campaigns.
During her first trip out, Scarlett joined an operation called ‘Pubs Against Drugs’, where she accompanied police members travelling to licensed premises around Liskeard, Saltash and Torpoint in Cornwall to crack down on drugs.
Scarlett explained: “I was invited out by Devon and Cornwall Police by a sergeant from Liskeard police station, as he was keen to get a local paper involved in what the force gets up too.
“During this operation, I travelled to a variety of pubs within south east Cornwall. From this I was able to experience arrests, drug wipes and searches using drug dog PD Skye.
“My role was to take photos and form a report based on what the officers found and how they were helping landlords to reduce drugs within their premises.”
Safer place
Scarlett’s second trip out involved reporting on ‘Operation Limits’, a police road safety campaign in Saltash designed to reduce dangerous driving and deter drink and drug driving during the Christmas period.
Scarlett elaborated: “During this operation, officers were stopping road users who were offending for things such as car defects, including no lights or unsafe loads, not using a seatbelt, eating at the wheel or speeding.
“If a road user was brought in for any offence, police had the ability to conduct roadside drink and drug tests.”
Reflecting on the two police campaigns, Scarlett said: “It was a great opportunity to be involved in these operations, which set out to try and make the local community a safer place to be.
Future operations
“From both of these campaigns I was able to publish the findings of the operations as well as photos of what took place.
“Both operations were a really enjoyable experience – I was very lucky to be invited out and will hopefully be involved a lot more in future operations.”
Based in the Cornish town of Liskeard, Scarlett joined Tindle in 2021 as one of its first five editorial apprentices, who all qualified as journalists at the end of their training.
The five were recruited in the first Tindle apprenticeship drive carried out to employ journalists in the heart of communities to bolster popular print titles while growing online reach.
- Check out Scarlett’s reporting on the ‘Pubs Against Drugs’ operation here: https://www.cornish-times.co.uk/news/police-crack-down-on-drugs-in-liskeard-saltash-and-torpoint-653749#
Read more on ‘Operation Limits’ here: https://www.cornish-times.co.uk/news/police-crack-down-on-speed-in-saltash-655553