Police showed their love for Exmoor on Valentine's Day (Tuesday) by conducting high visibility patrols in a bid to address rural crime.

Officers from Devon and Cornwall Police patrolled the Exmoor area this week as part of a larger operation to tackle cross border crime and on Tuesday Superintendent Toby Davies joined them to see first-hand what is going on.

On Tuesday officers arrested a driver for failing to stop and he was later found with suspected stolen good, as well as testing positive for impaired drug driving. He was released under investigation, pending further enquiries.

Other drivers were also spoken to during the operation.

This is part of a wider police initiative with colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police and Crimestoppers to address community concerns around drink and drug driving, as well as rural offences such as thefts of agricultural machinery and deer poaching.

Previously officers have conducted visits to several licensed premises around the area and carried out a number of actions and enforcements including breath tests on motorists, drug driving, no tax on a vehicle, vehicles seized and drivers given words of advice.   

READ NEXT: Police escort for sheep loaded into 'dangerous' trailer

The Exmoor operation has been supported by officers from the Devon and Cornwall Roads Policing Unit and Armed Response Vehicles, as well as officers from Avon and Somerset Police.

A Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership van joined police for the operation on the same day and detected 36 speeding offences on the A39.

Superintendent Davies, head of the North and West Devon Local Policing Area, said: “This operation centres around rural road focused policing and we are listening to community concerns and taking action accordingly.

“This initiative aims to tackle the rise in reported drink and drug driving cases nationally, with a particular focus across Exmoor and surrounding rural areas in a pro-active attempt to improve road safety and ultimately reduce road casualties and collisions.

“Importantly, we are also looking to arrest travelling criminals who target rural properties and businesses. We've had a number of local businesses broken into in our rural villages and we are working hard to bring these offenders to justice.”

If you have any crime information for the Exmoor area please contact officers via the force website https://:devon-cornwall.police.uk