DCC Paul Netherton who has been seconded to the Home Office during the pandemic to help co-ordinate the national policing response to COVID-19, will retire in May.

He was also heavily involved with the policing preparations for Brexit having built up an expertise is civil contingencies,

DCC Netherton has spent 12 years with Devon and Cornwall joining the force as an ACC in April 2008 and appointed Deputy Chief Constable in May 2017.

He is the National Police Chiefs Council lead for Civil Contingencies, responding to national emergencies and regularly attending the Government’s Cobra meetings.

He began his police career in 1990 in Surrey Police, working in various uniform and operational roles, before transferring to Hampshire Police in 2001 and spending a year in the Home Office Performance and Standards unit.

He also works with the Met Office and the University of Exeter around climate change and chairs the Local Resilience Forum (LRF) for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

In recognition of outstanding work in these areas, he was awarded an OBE in 2019; subsequently, for the past six months, he has been seconded to the Home Office dealing with the Covid pandemic.

He is president of the national Christian Police Association (CPA) and works closely with Street Pastors and other faith organisations supporting the police.

He is also chair of the Police Sport UK Snow Sports Section which allows him to get away at least once a year to compete in the events in Austria.

Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer said: “I would like to offer my enduring thanks and very best wishes to a colleague who has contributed so much to the communities he serves here within the peninsula but also his achievements nationally and internationally."

DCC Netherton said: “I have been incredibly proud to have spent over thirty years in the police service working alongside some amazing and incredibly dedicated people.

“However, it is in my role as police lead for civil contingencies that I feel I leave a legacy having dealt with some challenging incidents from floods, to fires and terrorism, disorder and of course Covid to finish on.

“Although leaving the police I will continue to work in the world of civil contingencies, risk management and major incident command but I will also take time to do a bit more sailing and skiing than I have managed over the past few years.”