Ottery St Mary Police

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23/04/2026

Urgent rush hour traffic announcement

JUST COMING IN 0829hrs - Serious RTC on M5 above J30 Sandygate - expect delays as motorway 'may' be closed.

Today is our national day and its a reminder that our oft misused flag is way more than a cheap tatty rag zip-tied to a ...
23/04/2026

Today is our national day and its a reminder that our oft misused flag is way more than a cheap tatty rag zip-tied to a lamp post on a roundabout.

Its a reminder that we are a nation of people that are proud, that love and celebrate the diversity in their community, and support each other when times are hard as we saw earlier this year with the bomb.

We are very very lucky to live and work where we live and I am immensely proud to be part of it.

I don't have a St Georges' flag at the station so we will have the Union Flag up instead (also not zip-tied)

Happy St George's Day!

*genuinely not interested in any narrow minded opinions to the contrary and remember this is an official police page. Saddens me to even have to write that.

What is the difference between this illegal electric bike and a can of supermarket budget own-brand spaghetti? Nothing -...
13/04/2026

What is the difference between this illegal electric bike and a can of supermarket budget own-brand spaghetti?

Nothing - other than time. The bike will get crushed and recycled, and for the benefit of this post, the can for the afore mentioned tomato flavoured fork-dodging slop.

The 'previous owner' had owned it for 18 hours from new before a mean officer from the Exmouth Ottery Neighbourhood Policing Team seized it off him a couple of days ago. No reg plates, no driving license.

These Surron style bikes are classed as a motorbike. You need a license, plates, V5, normal vehicle insurance, etc.

E-bikes are only legal if they are 1) A proper V5 registered battery motorcycle (which this could actually be!!) with a rider that holds a relevant license for a bike of that KW output, or 2) A pedal assist bike capable of no more than 25kph/16mph that does not have a throttle - ie your average e-mountainbike from Trek, Specialized, Yeti, Whyte, etc or similar branded commuting/shopping bikes. And yes, that includes electric scooters which are only legal in certain trial cities of which Exmouth, Ottery or indeed any of our parishes, is one.

No one gets the cake eating benefit of e-bikes more than me. I have two! - They just need to be safe and legal for every other road and path users' benefit.

The great thing about being next to our HQ is that lots of training occurs on the Ottery St Mary policing patch. The las...
01/04/2026

The great thing about being next to our HQ is that lots of training occurs on the Ottery St Mary policing patch.

The last two days had me out and about around the Force doing my required blue light driving refresher as well as Stinger/spike strip requal.

However, a huge amount of it occurs around Broadclyst, West Clyst, Cranbrook, Tithebarn, Whimple, Fairmile, Ottery and the old A30.

The pic here is an officer deploying a Stinger at Fairmile on one of our cars - no spikes in it of course! I should mention that this is training and in real deployment, this looks very different and the officer is not using a cone as hard cover!!!

I can confirm the Otter Nurseries flat bed truck was not taken out 🤣

23/03/2026

Is it Christmas already or what?!

I had to double-take when I saw this. I did not realise that Devon and Cornwall Police actually published where the speed camera van is going to be!

https://orlo.uk/FfnL6

You will note that a number of these locations are across the Exmouth and Ottery St Mary areas for the week ahead!

Naturally I am promoting this free information because I want you to drive sensibly on our roads. A good day for the camera van man is when he gets to do absolutely nothing and everyone drove safely......and of course you save on speeding fines, driving courses and radar detectors seemingly. Possibly also not having a collision and injuring (or worse) someone. Things like that.

The dilemma here is this. If you apply man-maths to this, you could argue that you just saved £120 on a speed awareness course and that that £120 is now available for maybe...sports gear, beer, holiday funds🤔

*I'm not sure of the practicalities of a little sausage dog like that in the police but you never know. If I get a fleet of shoebox police cars maybe we can test it out.
**I'm not providing this link every week - I'm not that generous.

19/03/2026

Parents of teens.

Another thing to keep an eye out for in the never ending bid to keep your kids safe from the world!

.

Nope, it has nothing to do with the silver stuff on your Raleigh Grifter wheels that you had to painstakingly clean to stop the rust.

It has everything to do with what the now middle aged generation may remember as glue sniffing. In fact, the only thing new here is the name!

As with all things, Tiktok has a part to play here but basically its inhaling household products such as deodorants and hairspray.
It has caused fatalities including here in Devon and Cornwall very recently. Aside from the obvious downsides of death, other issues come into play including seizures, brain, liver and kidney damage, respiratory and cardiac arrest.

Keep an eye on your kids, especially if they are costing you a fortune in Lynx but still smell like a teenagers' bedroom!

11/03/2026

Drove back to Ottery station yesterday and it was like a dog track! A lady came over to me in a hat and I thought she was going to take my bet and point me to cheap beer and chips.

Thank you to the members of public that assisted in playing cowboys and rounding up the two greyhounds but not before they did many laps of the town and stopped quite a few cars and lorries in their tracks.

The owner was identified thanks to some chip reading by Three Valleys Vets in Broad Street. The dogs are now home and any welfare follow-up passed on.

We spent a fair bit of time on Euro shops last year and pride ourselves on being very good at dealing with them - other ...
06/03/2026

We spent a fair bit of time on Euro shops last year and pride ourselves on being very good at dealing with them - other areas of the Force come to Exmouth Police for guidance.

But, like all crime, there is a persistent battle to fight and fight it we are.

We know you hate them and we know the visible crime, the hidden crime, the vulnerabilities, the exploitation and the risks these pose to our community.
It is a cooperation with HM Revenue and Customs and Trading Standards that deals with these 'businesses'.
The lost tax revenue alone on this photo taken yesterday* in my office** is £50k! Not to mention the dent on legitimate businesses in the town.

An unspecified store in Rolle Street has seen a chunk of activity from the Exmouth Neighbourhood Policing Team over the last few weeks. Yesterday, two individuals connected to that store were arrested and found in possession of around £65,000 retail, of illegal to***co. This is a mix of smuggled no-duty to***co and just fake ci******es (that contain absolutely who knows what but it 'aint good!).

The enquires on that continue but we are completely intolerant of 'illegal' retail premises that put our community at risk.

You will get zero sympathy from me around the dent on your cheap baccy. You are funding serious crime (read into that what you like) both in this country and abroad. Also, we now know all your addresses if you bought it on the phone🤣 .

Clearly, this is not about to***co per say. Its about the crime that surrounds this. Also, these present a considerable residential fire risk more so than UK legal ones as well as greater health issues.

If you have a smoking habit and need support, please contact your GP, chemist or local NHS support service.

*My office does not have astroturf for carpet. Its a really old Axminster I think. Its grown on me somewhat.
**Before you try and raid my office, sadly for you they have been seized by HM Revenue and Customs have taken them back to Wales last night 😉

25/02/2026

A bit of an odd request.....and there is no photo to support this for fear of losing my job!

Potholes. Yes yes yes. We are all a bit fed up of them but could I just kindly ask that they do not, with the assistance of spray paint, get turned into items of male anatomy.

We all hate potholes but it being turned into a 'ball' (all other words even scientific ones are prohibited in this app!) does not mean the pot hole gets fixed quicker. It does mean that a different council has to clean it up, we may have to record it as criminal damage etc (ironic I know). This all takes time and money and none of it solves the hole in the road because the police don't routinely carry pre-mixed tarmac in our cars.

Whilst there is undoubtedly a perceived comedy to this, a lot of people will find it offensive and it brings the tone of the neighbourhood down.

And yes, I have reported the one outside the Strand pub for clean up.

You know when the person on the stage says "Can you hear me at the back?".Well PCSO Ball has been back out with his mult...
20/02/2026

You know when the person on the stage says "Can you hear me at the back?".

Well PCSO Ball has been back out with his multi-purpose blue prop board and its defo debatable whether you can see it from the back.

Baller and Janet Quinn from Devon Trading Standards spent time doing their finest am-dram and discussing scams and frauds with the University of the Third Age (U3A) at the Pavilion on Wednesday.

There are just so many scams at the moment and some of them are very good. My own parents had a call about a £900 Vinted app transaction on their bank account last week. The transaction existed (not by my parents mind) and the person on the phone knew personal details of my parents, did not ask for a passwords etc. But it was a scam! No real person at your bank will be offended if you say nothing, hang up and use your banking app or the legit number for the bank. And quite frankly, who gives a monkeys if you offend a scammer- they deserve it! Just hang up. Never disclose or take any action on a cold call! - incidentally my parents are not on Vinted.

Scams are not an age related issue and we are all vulnerable to them however spend time with your older relatives and ensure they understand the risks. This includes rouge door step traders that offer them a lift to the bank!

TSConnect

PCSO Sims and PCSO Thomson will be at Ottery St Mary Library on Saturday 21 February, between 10:00 and 11:30.They'll be...
12/02/2026

PCSO Sims and PCSO Thomson will be at Ottery St Mary Library on Saturday 21 February, between 10:00 and 11:30.

They'll be available to discuss any issues or concerns you might have in your community.

Come and say hi! 👋

12/02/2026

Wins for the weekend (one for Ottery and one for Exmouth);-

-The weird wooden chair on Mona Island in Exmouth town centre - moved and getting disposed of today after some polite discussions with the owner.

-The burnt out BMW at A30 Fenny Bridges - recovered yesterday thanks to some partnership discussions

Its the little things that make the difference 😎
......oh and my pothole tourism has continued and I have to say, as of a couple of days ago, Ottery officially has the worst potholes on Planet Earth. Which is ironic because there is literally no earth there!

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