Agenda item

The Board is pleased to welcome the Police and Crime Commissioner along with the Chief Constable who will give an update on Wiltshire Police.

Corsham Area Board was pleased to welcome Phillip Wilkinson OBE, the Police and Crime Commissioner to the meeting where he gave a verbal update on progress since his appointment 2 years ago.

The Police and Crime Commissioner described his main role as to challenge Wiltshire Police Force to perform better in order to remove itself from special measures.

·       Particular attention was drawn to efforts to improve call centres for 999 calls, with response times dropping from 27 minutes on average to 10 minutes.

·       A more effective and efficient Police Force, including an improvement to response times.

·       A reduction in violent crimes, specifically sexual crimes which has improved from a 2% conviction rate to currently 14%, with the expectation that this figure will continue to improve. Drug crimes have also been prioritised through Operation Scorpion to focus on specific targets committing drug crimes. Wiltshire Council is now the top Force in county line drug disruption.

·       Tackling crimes highlighted by the community, specifically road safety. Community Speedwatch was highlighted as really important to this priority and enforcement statistics had massively improved through ticketing and other enforcement actions. Antisocial behaviour was also highlighted as a community priority.

·       Rural Crime. The local Rural Crime Unit had been given better equipment in the form of drones and night vision to better tackle specifically organised crime gangs committing rural crimes against farmers. Operation Ragwort was highlighted as a specific initiative to tackle this.

The board also welcomed the Chief Constable, Catherine Roper, who gave a verbal presentation.

Points to note:

The Chief Constable had been in post 6 months and described the work she had been doing since the force had been graded poorly and placed in special measures in June 2022. The reasons for this were described as: 

·       Not recognising vulnerable persons and their challenges. 

·       The response to incidents not being adequate. 

·       The process from when members of the public first contacted the police to the conclusion of a case was described as having failings all throughout. 

The Chief Constable was very conscious that the foundations of Wiltshire Police needed to be rebuilt, and that as trust and confidence in the force had declined the morale within the force had declined as a result.

Rebuilding the fundamentals of Wiltshire Police would lead to being brought out of special measures. This included work already underway on the business-as-usual delivery plan, restructuring the senior management and performance frameworks and refocusing crime-tackling priorities. 

The Chief Constable understood public unease at burglary crimes and described this as unacceptable. More investment had been made in neighbourhood teams and with the reorganisation of response teams both would add to further deterrence and response. 

Other areas of improvement included:

• Visibility on the roads to deter criminals.

• Recruitment activities, with emphasis given to opportunities for those in a gap year.

• The Evolve programme, allowing those most involved in day-to-day activity to give their views on where improvements can be made.

• Auditing and inspections, ensuring progress had been made through regular reports to the PCC. Every 6 months the Chief Constable and PCC attend Whitehall to face numerous questions and explain how improvements had been made.

• The Control Room. The Chief Constable praised the work that had been done to improve the speed at which calls are answered and actioned but understood that more improvements could and would be made.

The following points and clarifications were made by the Board and the public in attendance:

That the rise in sexual offence prosecutions was a good start and hopefully will continue the upward trend.

It was good to see speeding being taken so seriously, with serious issues being reported in the Corsham area.

It was clarified that the next inspection was expected imminently but more specific inspections took place continuously on all areas of the force since Wiltshire Police remained in Special Measures.

The Coordinator for Speedwatch in Box received clarification that officers could be provided to assist and authorise tickets for offenders and enforcement was really important to Wiltshire Police.

It was clarified that since parking had been decriminalised Wiltshire Council was now responsible for enforcing rules, however where parking was dangerous the police would respond and take action.

The Board was pleased that the police presence was increasing around town, and it had been noticed and appreciated.

It was clarified that Speed Indicator Devices and the data from them were used to help determine where a police presence was needed to monitor speeding.