He will be leading 290 officers and staff across the area, supported by a chief inspector and a team of inspectors.
Supt Lawler started his career in Devon and Cornwall Police as a volunteer 26 years ago.
Since then, he has been a uniformed officer in neighbourhood policing, overseen the Force’s incident management team, managed the central control centre and more recently led the creation of a new prevention department which spans across both Devon and Cornwall and Dorset Police areas.
He is also a qualified public order and firearms commander and undertakes other specialist policing roles.
Going forward, the challenges he sees are the need to develop local policing connections with communities, manage increasing policing demands from safeguarding the most vulnerable and tackle evolving threats from organised crime.
He said: “My aim is to empower my officers and staff to continue to be proactive in all their specialist areas of policing; whether that be in an operational capacity or in investigating and preventing crime and harm.
“We can’t do that alone and I am determined to build upon the excellent existing relationships we have with our partner agencies and the communities of Exeter, East and Mid Devon so we can all help to keep ourselves safe, prevent crime and protect the most vulnerable.
“I look forward over the next few years to leading policing across the area for the benefit of everyone who lives, works and visits this beautiful part of the world.”
Originally from Australia, Supt Lawler is now settled in East Devon with his wife and children.
You can follow Superintendent Lawler on “Twitter” at @SuptMattLawler .