Tom Holmes was Superintendent for north, east and west Devon BCU until April 2025, working with strategic partners to deliver safeguarding children and adults board work, along with “Prevent” and anti-slavery agendas for the force. He was the regional lead for hostage and crisis negotiation and was a public order commander.
Tom graduated from the University of Exeter in 1994 in Ancient History and Archeology, and spent many happy excavations scraping away meticulously in a trench, and recording and cataloguing finds. Logically, he was the force strategic lead for heritage and cultural property crime, and Deputy Chair of the national working group in this niche crime field.
Heritage crime covers a wide range of subjects including damage to scheduled monuments, illegal metal detecting (night hawking), enforcement of the Protection of Wrecks Act, and work with Historic England and English Heritage, local authorities and volunteer groups. The goal is to better protect our regional sites and provide specialist training for police officers as ‘heritage crime liaison officers.’
