Inspector Conrad Glass is coy when asked if he's ever made an arrest. Every day he carries handcuffs, a truncheon and pepper spray, but in 22 years as the sole police officer on the world's most remote inhabited island, he hasn't ever had recourse to the cells. "We don't really have a prison to put people in," he says as we talk in Stevenage. Glass has made the epic journey from Tristan da Cunha, a British overseas territory of around 270 people in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, to Hertfordshire for a refresher course on community policing.

With no airport, one pub and only six surnames among its people, Glass admits that crime is almost non-existent on Tristan da Cunha. Doors remain unlocked. "When we do have problems it is always between people who know each other. Calming a situation is the most important thing."

His daily patrol takes in "the school, the hospital, the administrator's house and the crayfish factory". When there are problems, they tend to come from yachters. "There was one guy who turned up and after he left we found out he was wanted by Interpol," Glass admits. "The last time we used our holding cell was back in the 70s, before I was a policeman, when there was a knife fight on a fishing vessel." These days, however, the cell is out of bounds. "We only have one bunk, there's no washing facilities and the door is made of plywood so it wouldn't take a strong man to break it down."

So what does community policing mean for him? "It's hard to remain aloof on such a small island but that's what I try to do," he says. "I only go to the Albatross Inn once or twice a year. I'm not much of a drinker and I'm much happier at home with a book."

But the future is uncertain. At 48, retirement is in sight. "I don't want to do this for ever. Neither of my special constables want to take over and nobody has come forward to offer to replace me when I step down in about five years. I'd be very happy for an officer from the UK to come and do the job and I'd love to arrange for somebody to come out here for a month and see if they like it."