Chiseldon Parish Council shares communications it receives which may be of interest to our residents

Dear Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson,

Yesterday, the Government made additional announcements regarding the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.

The Guarantee sets out what communities should expect from their neighbourhood policing team.

The latest announcements included;

  • Each Force having named and contactable officers for every neighbourhood area
  • Every neighbourhood in England and Wales having dedicated teams who will spend their time on the beat with guaranteed police patrols in town centres and other hotspot areas at peak times such as Friday and Saturday nights
  • There will be a dedicated antisocial behaviour lead in every force, working with residents and businesses to develop tailored action plans to tackle antisocial behaviour (ASB).

I’m pleased to confirm that Wiltshire Police is already well advanced with these measures.

Last year, more than 6,000 hours of visible patrols in hotspot areas were conducted across the county involving more than 140 officers, Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), and ASB Street Wardens. This resulted in 87 people being arrested, 32 stop searches conducted and over 150 ASB incidents addressed, including public disorder, youth-related ASB, vehicle-related ASB, and street drinking. This was overseen by our dedicated ASB Hotspot Manager.

We’re currently developing a Neighbourhood Policing performance framework which will clearly monitor our local policing service to our communities. This will be published on our website so the public can hold us to account for its delivery. In addition, we will be regularly publishing engagement plans, targeted patrol information and updates on community consultations.

We’ve increased the use of our Mobile Police Vehicles to ensure a wider reach into our neighbourhoods, providing valuable face-to-face engagement within our communities. From today, the public can find out exactly when and where these vehicles will be in their local area by visiting the Your Area section of our website, putting in their postcode and clicking on the ‘Meetings and Events’ tab.

On these pages, each Neighbourhood Policing Team also provides regular updates on their local priorities, outcomes – including warrants, traffic operations and partnership activity, contact information, and local crime data.

I am confident these measures will continue to have a positive impact across Wiltshire.

In addition to our activity, it is crucial we continue to develop our local partnerships and collaborations.

One such example is the recent transformational review of our Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) coordinated by your office.

CSPs are local collaborations which bring together various agencies, including the police, local authorities, fire and rescue services, health partners, and the Probation Service, to tackle crime, disorder, and antisocial behaviour in communities. We have one covering Swindon and one covering Wiltshire.

Many of the crime and disorder issues experienced by our communities are multi-faceted and cannot be solved simply by enforcement action by the police. Partnership working is vital if we are to truly solve problems which generate crime and anti-social behaviour.

I believe our collective improvements will support our communities better.

Wiltshire Police has consistently enjoyed a positive relationship with the county’s High Sheriff and, over the last few weeks, former High Sheriff, Dr Olivia Chapple, was keen to recognise the incredible work of our volunteers.

Among the recipients of this year’s High Sheriff Awards, was Ken Bridgeman who recently celebrated 45 years as a special constable with Wiltshire Police.

Ken currently works in the Special Road Safety Unit and is trained to drive HGVs to support Operation Tramline – our joint operation with National Highways which uses an unmarked HGV to help detect offences such as drivers using mobile phones or failing to wear a seatbelt.

I would like to publicly thank Ken for his unwavering dedication to public service, and also take a moment to thank all our outstanding volunteers. We simply couldn’t do our work without you.

Dr Chapple also presented a commendation to PC Nicola Crabbe for her brave actions when a man was stabbed in Devizes town centre last summer.

On June 29, PC Crabbe was faced with a man holding a knife, attacking another man. She bravely intervened and managed to stop the offender, Kubilay Bostanli, from continuing his assault.

Kubilay Bostanli, 27, of Anzio Road, Devizes, was found guilty of attempted murder following a trial in January and is due to be sentenced at a later date.

PC Crabbe has also been nominated for the Police Bravery Awards later this year in London.

As I’ve outlined previously, we continue to strengthen our approach to tackling crimes impacting on our rural communities.

Some recent activity which has taken place to underline this includes:

  • The launch of a public awareness campaign following an increase in reports of livestock worrying – particularly in the south of the county. As part of this, we published a video interview with a victim of livestock worrying to highlight the significant distress this crime type causes to victims
  • Our teams continuing to develop partnerships with other agencies to improve the service our rural communities receive. Last weekend, officers from the Salisbury Neighbourhood Policing Team supported Dorset Police with locating suspects wanted in connection with a series of quad bike thefts. This resulted in our officers arresting two people on suspicion of multiple offences including attempted theft, theft of tools, possession of an offensive weapon, driving without valid insurance, and one of the occupants was also wanted for failing to appear in court
  • Our officers are also now using tack stamping kits which registers equine equipment as part of a national programme to prevent theft from stables
  • Elsewhere, eight individuals are currently on bail having been arrested on suspicion of hare coursing, and the final three of seven suspects arrested in January in relation to hare coursing have now entered guilty pleas

I hope this update provides further reassurance of our focus on those engaging in rural criminality. The increased cross border collaboration will ensure our response is ever more robust.

Finally, I firmly believe that part of developing the public’s trust and confidence in us is operating in the most transparent and open way – facilitating meaningful two-way conversations with our communities.

On Monday (14 April), I will be hosting my regular Facebook Live event at 6.30pm and I look forward to hearing from our communities about any concerns, questions or suggestions they might have. In addition to taking questions live during the hour-long session, they can also be submitted in advance via the Wiltshire Police Facebook page.

Kindest regards,

Catherine Roper

Chief Constable, Wiltshire Police