A presentation from the Police & Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson OBE, followed by a Q & A session.
Minutes:
The Board welcomed the Police & Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson OBE, who gave an overview of current areas of work.
The PCC noted the vast array of fantastic organisations engaging with young people across Wiltshire and Swindon, drawing attention to a funding scheme for young people, offered by the OPCC where applicants could apply for up to £5k at a time.
The PCC went on to outline his background in national defence and safeguarding and his current role which included holding the Police to account, working closely with the new Chief Constable and her soon to be in role new Deputy Chief Constable and Senior Leadership Team.
The Police & Crime Plan focused on four priority areas. The priorities included a Police force which was better communicated with the public, community commitment and improved response times for the 101 service.
A new shift system which had been reorganised to provide a greater emphasis on the Community Policing Teams, with more Officers on the streets.
Violence against women and girls now had a positive outcome rate with further improvements planned.
Drugs and county lines – collaborative multi force operations were carried out between all 5 Police forces in the southwest. Operation Scorpion was a regional approach to focus on county lines activity, with Wiltshire a top performing force across the country.
Speeding – In 2021 a total of 192 speeding tickets were issued. In 2023 there had been 12k tickets issued this year already.
Wiltshire was performing well with the Community Speedwatch Initiative, able to identify hotspots and persistent offenders to enable the deployment of Speed Enforcement Officers to specifically identified locations.
Ongoing issues with Anti-Social behaviour (ASB) were multi-facetted. The force would need to get behind the causes to then address the symptoms. Engaging with the thematic groups to have a joined-up approach was beneficial. In areas where there had been a higher level of ASB, work was carried out with multi agencies to create a package of support.
Following the success of Operation Scorpion, the collaborative work of the five forces in the Southwest would look to address Rural Crime. Taking a much more coherent approach to tackle the groups targeting farms and rural settings.
The PCC and Chief Constable were radically reforming the enabling resources to improve operational matters.
The request for a local Police Station in the south had not been forgotten. There were two sites up for consideration, these were located at Old Sarum and at the High Post and work was currently underway to assess each for biodiversity value.
Questions and comments included:
If a piece of farm machinery had a tracker, could it be retrieved before it was moved abroad?
Answer: There are no-go areas in Wiltshire.
Regarding speeding tickets, what was your opinion on auto speedwatch?
Answer: The system was not as good as a SID and the data could not be used in a court of law. Strongly recommend a SID.
There had been a number of burglaries around the Bishopdown area, what was Wiltshire Police doing to tackle that?
Answer: It was policy that every burglary to a domestic building would receive a Police visit. We now also have a burglary team who make visits whether urban or rural. If it was a farm then the NFU would cover the loss. It was an issue that we were working with the National Farmers Unions on.
What was the current status on the Night Safety Charter and what was being done to improve the take up?
Answer: (Inspector Osborn) Locally we have been out to all of the licensed premises with the leaflets, however as we have such a good pubwatch scheme in Salisbury they are reluctant to take this scheme on. We continue to promote it at pubwatch meetings. I am satisfied that we have everyone on board with it.