Dear Police and Crime Commissioner, Philip Wilkinson,

The latest Police Efficiency, Effectiveness and Legitimacy (PEEL) inspection report for Wiltshire Police was published by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) earlier this month. I wanted to share how some of the improvements referenced in the report have translated into frontline operational activity.

Overall, the volume of crime within Wiltshire and Swindon has decreased over the last 12 months. However, the proportion of crimes that have a positive outcome, such as a sentencing at court or an Out of Court Resolution, has increased to 16.8% (up 2.8 percentage points on last year). 

I recognise we need to drive this performance even further. One way we can do this is increasing our use of Out of Court Resolutions. We’ve improved this over the last 12 months but they are still only applied in less than 6% of cases and present a significant opportunity to improve outcomes for victims of crime.

We are seeing increases in our levels of victim satisfaction locally, but we need to get better at putting clear, thorough investigation plans in place and keeping victims updated. I have made it clear to all my officers and staff how they can help to achieve this. Whilst we have seen a small increase in satisfaction with victim contact in the last 12 months, this is still an area where we can make a big improvement in our service.

We continue to focus heavily on improving our call handling. As referenced in HMICFRS’ report, we aren’t consistently answering 999 calls quickly and we need to reduce the number of callers into our 101 service that abandon their call. We are implementing new technology to assist with this, and we have also increased our staffing levels within the Crime and Communications Centre (CCC) so that we have a greater number of call handlers available to respond to the public. We are already seeing some early indicators that this is having an impact on service delivery, with established daily monitoring of our CCC performance. I am confident that the combination of better performance grip, improved staffing levels and enhanced technology will see our CCC service delivery continue to improve. 

The improvement activity recognised in the PEEL report has laid stronger foundations for our operational activity. We have reorganised some of our frontline teams which in turn has strengthened their ability to work together to tackle crime. Recently we have seen some excellent results arising from our operational teams joining together:

These examples are powerful evidence of how our improvements are starting to translate into a more efficient and effective operational response. 

I also wanted to share some recent results from other areas of operational activity:

Retail Crime

The Office for National Statistics recently published their latest crime statistics noting that shoplifting has increased by 14% in the past 12 months (an increase of nearly 500 offences). We know that shoplifting has a huge impact on retailers, who are often intimidated, threatened or assaulted by offenders. We also know that if criminals are shoplifting, they are likely to be committing other offences as well. By focusing our operational activity on shoplifting and assault of an emergency worker we can provide a better service to our retailers whilst tackling other criminality.

We currently have the highest number of police officers in Wiltshire Police since 2010 and this is helping to ensure that we have a more visible presence within our communities and on our high streets. This increased visibility, alongside the dedicated Neighbourhood Policing Teams that we now have in place, provides enhanced support to our retail communities. This is already producing encouraging results including the sentencing recently of a prolific shoplifter in Swindon who had committed theft in multiple stores (two of the offences taking place the day after being given a suspended sentence for similar crimes). 

We will continue working with local retailers and partners to tackle this rising area of criminality that causes such harm to local businesses.

Rural Crime 

In the past 12 months we have seen 178 rural crimes within Wiltshire – the majority of which relate to burglary and theft offences. 

Similar to retail crime, we are focusing on two areas of rural crime as they indicate other linked criminality. These focus areas are hare coursing & poaching and theft of plant. 

Recently we arrested four males involved with suspected hare coursing in the South of the county following intelligence received from members of the public. This underlines the importance of connecting information from our rural communities to our operational activity so that we can keep our rural communities safe and tackle organised criminality. 

Sexual Offences 

During the past 12 months our investigations into sexual offences, many of which involved children, have secured sentences totalling over 130 years. Just last week, a 21 year old man from Rodbourne, was sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment after admitting one count of rape, two counts of attempted rape, actual bodily harm and perverting the course of justice. He will spend a further 5 years on extended licence and will be placed on the sex offenders register for life to ensure that he can no longer present a danger to the public.

We have also recently seen some significant outcomes in relation to historic sex offences. In particular, a Chippenham man was jailed for four years after being found guilty of sexual offences against a child that took place in the 1970s. The victim in this case only felt able to report her ordeal to police in 2021 – we cannot underestimate the incredible courage it takes for victims to report what has happened to them. I want to reassure all our communities that no matter how much time has passed since an offence took place we will take it seriously and be relentless in our pursuit of justice.

Violence

Whilst we have seen an 8.5% decrease in crimes involving knives and blades during the last 12 months, we know the risks that knives pose to our communities and we are committed to taking weapons off our streets. 

This week saw the launch of a national surrender and compensation scheme for zombie-style knives and machetes in advance of legislation that will make them illegal to own. We have set up locations at Swindon Gablecross, Trowbridge, Chippenham and Salisbury police stations so weapons can be safely disposed of. Full details are available on our website.

More broadly on the subject of violence, the number of violent incidents involving injury has decreased but we are achieving more positive outcomes. This includes the sentencing of a man from Salisbury on 21 August for attempted GBH, possession of an offensive weapon and harassment. This follows an incident earlier this year where the offender seriously assaulted his victim with crutches. Members of the public intervened and barricaded themselves inside a pharmacy until officers arrived. He was sentenced to over 5 years imprisonment.

Roads Policing 

One of the core tenets of our commitment to keeping Wiltshire safe is keeping our roads safe. 

In July, 810 vehicles were caught speeding by our speed enforcement officers: 726 drivers were offered speed awareness courses, 73 were fined and given points and 11 were put before the courts.

Throughout August our Summer Road Safety campaign has focused on the areas that contribute most to deaths on the roads – otherwise known as the fatal 5. Alongside educational messages on our social media and other channels, our roads policing team have made a number of arrests for motoring offences in recent weeks including:

As HMICFRS observed in their report, Wiltshire Police is making progress in its improvement journey and it is reassuring to see this evidenced in recent activity. We must continue striving for the highest possible standards so that we consistently deliver the high quality of service that our communities expect and deserve. I will keep you updated with our performance as we continue our improvement journey.

Kindest regards to you,

Catherine Roper

Chief Constable, Wiltshire Police