SIDMOUTH Police have listed every call made to them in a month to reveal exactly what officers must deal with in a typical week.

SIDMOUTH Police have listed every call made to them in a month to reveal exactly what officers must deal with in a typical week.

More than 150 incidents and subsequent actions taken by officers have been detailed on the Devon and Cornwall Police web-site to emphasise that the town’s neighbourhood team tackle a full range of social problems - not just crime.

Serious calls included domestic violence, anti-social behaviour, assaults, hit and run traffic collisions, drink drivers, disorder in the street, underage drinkers, and reports of shoplifters and boy racers.

However, these were far outnumbered by matters such as runaway donkeys and sheep, branches blocking the road, a residents’ hedge dispute, noisy parties and accidental 999 calls.

Bizarre incidents included: “Report of a suspicious person outside property - suspicious person was in fact a uniformed police officer on enquiries.”

Another read: “Found ammunition - Officer attended and found it not to be ammunition.”

The list doesn’t include pro-active police work such as vehicle speed checks, arrests not linked to calls, or directly reported crimes.

Officers issued advice over several neighbour disputes. Confused and elderly residents consistently rang police and were referred to medical professionals. Police also referred scores of traffic-related reports, like broken traffic lights, to highways chiefs.

The details were published by Sergeant Andy Turner, who told the Herald: “I want the people of Sidmouth to understand the sort of work their police are doing for them on a 24 hour basis.

“You may be surprised by the volume of calls and the different jobs we do. There’s not a lot of crime in there. These are the calls the public want us to respond to.