Fortnightly update to the Police and Crime Commissioner - 22 November 2024

Dear Police and Crime Commissioner, Philip Wilkinson,

You and I regularly thank our volunteers and community members for their support. Last week, I was honoured to attend the Police Public Bravery Awards in Sheffield where Mr. Gary Franklin was recognised for his incredible bravery and selfless actions when he intervened in a violent altercation in Pewsey in September 2023. Mr. Franklin both cared for the victim and detained the suspect whilst police arrived. Whilst publicly thanking Mr. Franklin, I would like to recognise again the dedication of Wiltshire communities to supporting each other and Wiltshire Police.

One of my Force priorities to deliver your Policing and Crime Plan is to tackle violence. On Monday 11 November, we jointly launched our Serious Violence Campaign, focusing on the harm it causes to victims, families, and communities. Both you and I are particularly concerned about Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE), where ruthless criminals manipulate children to commit criminal offences for them.

Once again, we are both asking our communities for help on ‘spotting the signs’ of CCE. Exploitation can be recognised through children becoming withdrawn, appearing secretive, wearing new and expensive clothing which they normally could not afford and appearing to rapidly change friendship groups. There is more information available here or visit Child criminal exploitation | Child abuse | Wiltshire Police.

By speaking up, our communities may make a significant difference to a child’s future.

Through Area Boards and the recent Police and Crime Panel, we have both heard continued concerns of the impact of Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB). Wiltshire Police has recently supported National ASB Awareness week, including additional patrols in ASB hotspots across the county, increasing our engagement with our town centre communities through schemes such as shop watch, and providing specific ASB training to our dedicated neighbourhood teams to design out this behaviour.

On Wednesday 20 November, we also held a ‘Let’s Talk ASB’ public Facebook Live event with our Crime and Communications Centre (CCC) lead Superintendent Mark Lynch, alongside Lianna Bradshaw, our ASB Hotspot Manager. The session provided insight into how the control room handles ASB calls, and outlined the proactive steps we are taking to manage and reduce incidents. Thank you to the members of public who joined the event or who watched it afterwards. We hope you found it helpful.

Tackling ASB remains a priority for Wiltshire Police under our Safer Public Spaces operational priority. Our communities will continue to see more high visibility policing and proactive interventions to support them. Just this week, we saw the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) launched in Devizes, and over £50,000 worth of seizures in Swindon of illicit vapes, tobacco and alcohol.  Working with partners from His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and Trading Standards, a series of warrants took place in the Broadgreen area, which you attended to observe, with five arrests made for breaching Section 92 of the Trade Marks Act 1994. This was an excellent piece of partnership working, with the sharing of intelligence enabling proactive steps to be taken to apprehend individuals followed by closure orders for the premises.

Last Thursday we held our annual internal Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Conference, with the theme of Diverse Voices, Better Solutions. There were three guest speakers, one of whom has dedicated her life to tackling Violence Against Women and Girls having suffered a tragic loss after her daughters were murdered in 2020. This ever strengthened our Force resolve to tackle this heinous criminality.

Another included a powerful input by a Gender Authenticity Specialist who generated new discussions within the force to consider how supportive our culture was for the LGBTQ+ communities. The final guest speaker was a senior Police Officer from Avon and Somerset Police who described his journey from Zimbabwe to becoming a police officer in England, and the challenges he had to overcome to get to where he is now.

I am absolutely committed to ensuring that Wiltshire Police is a diverse and inclusive organisation where everyone can thrive and where everyone’s individual needs and voices are respected and heard. In achieving this we will serve our communities better.

Finally in closing, I would like to mention a few recent operational successes:

• We have charged three people in connection with the incident at Stonehenge in June, where an orange substance was thrown at the stones. The charges included aiding and abetting, destroying, or damaging an ancient, protected monument and intentionally causing a public nuisance. You will remember that this was an incident which occurred directly before the Summer Solstice and caused great concern and shock across the South West region and beyond. All three will appear in court in December.
• We have arrested three people in connection with a recent spate of thefts from vans in the south of the county where thousands of pounds worth of power tools had been stolen. Further to intelligence being passed to us from a neighbouring force, officers from our Roads Policing, Armed Response, and Dog section stopped a vehicle of interest driving within the county, and three people in the vehicle wearing gloves and balaclavas were detained and arrested. These incidents of theft have caused significant impact to the victims, who relied on their tools for their livelihood.
• Following the extremely distressing incident in Amesbury on 10 November at a rural property, a man has been arrested on suspicion of multiple offences including dangerous driving, affray, and criminal damage. We are continuing to make enquiries to locate other suspects, and additional patrols will continue to be undertaken in the area and other rural locations across the county.

Kindest regards to you,

Catherine Roper

Chief Constable, Wiltshire Police