Police chiefs have rejected claims officers ignored public cries for help and refused to come out of their police station.

And police boss Insp Andy Tomlinson said officers were 'disappointed' that anyone would believe they would fail their community in that manner.

He revealed Dartmouth police station was effectively unmanned at the time of an incident when officers from Totnes had to be called in to arrest an alleged shoplifter.

The only person inside the town centre police station was an off-duty CID officer finishing off paperwork and by the time he got to the front door to respond to the knocking, there was no one there to tell him what was happening.

Insp Tomlison said: 'I would like to make it absolutely clear that there were no staff on duty in the station at the time of this incident.

'The one person who was there did come out to assist, but with nothing apparently happening then went back in again.'

And he added: 'Finally, having spoken to the Dartmouth neighbourhood team, I can say that they are disappointed that anyone would believe they would fail to respond to a call for help from their community.

'That is not my experience of their work or attitude and I hope it is not the experience of anyone in Dartmouth.'

The allegation followed a suspected shoplifting at Boots in which the shop manager ended up following the alleged thief around the town for half an hour in an attempt to stop him from escaping. It was claimed that at one stage the man dropped his trousers and indecently exposed himself to the manager and a female assistant who were following him, in a bid to frighten them off.

Laurie Preece claimed she had gone to the police station to get help after the man was cornered in Royal Avenue Gardens but no one came out even though she could see someone was inside.

Eventually the man was arrested by officers who had driven to Dartmouth from Totnes.

Insp Tomlinson said Mrs Preece's claims created 'the incorrect impression that officers at Dartmouth were present in the station but declined to assist when called on by members of the public'.

He said: 'I can confirm that we received a call that a suspected shoplifter was being followed at 3.54pm.

'At that time there were no officers in the immediate vicinity and so officers were dispatched from Totnes.

'At 4.10pm we received a further call from Mrs Preece, who later contacted your paper, advising us the male was now being detained by shop staff.

'At 4.18pm the officers from Totnes arrived and the male was arrested.

'Having made inquiries into the circumstances, I have established that there was an officer in the station at the time of Mrs Preece's call.

'This was a CID officer based at another station, who was not on duty, but was in the station completing some paperwork.

'As he was not on duty, he did not have his radio on. He heard knocking and looked out of the window where he saw Mrs Preece. He went out of the back door and walked to the front of the station, but by then Mrs Preece had left.

'As the male was being detained some distance away, he could not see anything requiring his attention so he returned to the station before leaving a short time later having completed his paperwork.'

He added: 'In this case officers arrived 24 minutes after the initial call and eight minutes after being informed a suspect had been detained.

'While in most cases I would expect our response time to be a little better than this, because the South Hams is a large rural area with low crime rates there can on occasion be a short delay in attendance.

'It is not uncommon for stations to have no officers in them. We have limited numbers of officers available at any time and anyone in the station is not then out on public patrol.

'We make a great deal of effort to ensure officers are on patrol and out of the station as much as possible.

'Very few urgent matters are reported at police stations, the vast majority of calls being by phone, so having officers waiting in stations for a call is a very poor use of their time.'