Commissioner honours Inspector behind unique Devon and Cornwall multi-agency response team

A retiring Devon & Cornwall Police Inspector has been recognised for his exceptional contribution to community safety with a special award from Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez.

Inspector Miles Topham, who is retiring next month after 28 years of service, was presented with the Commissioner’s Commendation for his pivotal role in helping to launch and expand the Tri-Service Safety Officer (TSSO) scheme – a pioneering initiative unique to Devon and Cornwall.

TSSOs are trained to respond to police, fire, and ambulance incidents, providing an innovative, multi-skilled approach to emergency response and community safety. The scheme began as a pilot in Hayle, Cornwall, in 2014 and has since expanded to 15 full-time roles across the county. Earlier this year, Devon’s first TSSO was launched in Holsworthy, marking a major milestone for the programme.

Commissioner Hernandez praised Inspector Topham’s leadership and dedication to developing the scheme, saying: “TSSOs bring a skill set to a community that is unheard of in the rest of the country. Miles has overseen its implementation and expansion with passion and relentless enthusiasm driven by a desire to help others. He has brought in and recruited some of the most talented individuals who we are very lucky to have in Devon and Cornwall.

“TSSOs make an absolute real difference to people’s lives within the communities they serve. They can respond to urgent and non-urgent incidents from a multi-agency perspective, and play a key role in improving public safety, reducing risks and providing early intervention in hard-to-reach communities.

“Miles’s collaborative approach with other emergency services has created an innovative model that I am helping to see replicated across the UK.”

The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) jointly funds the TSSO programme with Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) and the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT), supported by additional NHS funding.

Inspector Topham, who has served in response, neighbourhood, CID, domestic abuse and custody teams, said he hopes his legacy will include securing long-term funding for the continued rollout of the scheme.

“We are very close to achieving health funding for 2026 onwards to rollout the scheme in other regions,” he said. “Our TSSOs are really inspiring and make you want to work harder for them. They support the emergency services in a fantastic way which has made patient outcomes and experiences much better. Their whole ethos is reducing vulnerability and risk in communities. They provide that local point of contact in areas where policing may not often have a presence and can deal with incidents from a multiple emergency perspective rather than in isolation.

“They can also give individuals help for as long as it takes and therefore a quality service as there are no time pressures on them. There are numerous stories where lives have been saved helping people suffering cardiac arrests and even saving an individual attempting to take his own life.

“However, less than 10 per cent of the work they do is emergency response; their main duties are early intervention prevention and improving peoples’ lives. I am so proud to be associated with them. The job has been an absolute joy and I have loved every minute of it.”

Reflecting on the award, Inspector Topham added:

“I am very proud and honoured to receive this award from the Commissioner for TSSO and collaborative work. It is the team that is leading the way and are making massive differences in Cornwall and now in Devon. I hope it will become a national scheme and its legacy will be one I’m incredibly proud, but it is the team who need to take all the credit.”

The TSSO model, which combines emergency response with proactive community engagement, has been hailed as a national example of best practice and could soon inspire similar schemes across the UK.