Walk and Talk is a new initiative in Wiltshire asking women aged 18 and over: 'Is there a place you feel unsafe? Take us there'.

Wiltshire Police will be linking up with women in person to understand first-hand how safe they feel in the communities they live.  

Detective Chief Inspector Lucy Thorne said: “This project is designed to continually improve our understanding of local issues, so we can all work together to make changes. Working with our partners in each local authority in Wiltshire and Swindon, it is our role to not only prevent and detect crime but also to make our communities feel safe.

"Sadly, we know that just being a female can make people feel unsafe and we want to understand what we can do to improve that.

Barriers

"We will be conducting walk and talks with women from a range of backgrounds focusing on the different barriers that a woman could feel due to her age or background.

"It could be caused by range of things from poor lighting to anti-social behaviour. We can then share this information with partners to consider how we can work together to support changes and improvements being made.

The first Walk and Talk was held on Friday (29/11) in North Swindon where DCI Thorne was joined by Taj and Karam who are two local women from the South Asia community in Swindon. Taj and Karam drive awareness around Domestic Abuse and breaking down cultural barriers through their work with the organisation Changing Suits.

“This is an important development as the personal interaction will develop our understanding of issues from the perspective of women and girls.”

Priorities

Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson said: “One of my priorities is to reduce anti-social behaviour and serious violence across the county. It is too easy for women and girls to simply be told they are safe in the night-time economy in Wiltshire, as we do have lower crime rates than many urban areas, but we must ensure they are actually safe – and feel it too. 

“Extensive research has been done by Wiltshire Police to ensure we are placing our resources in the right place and I will be holding our Chief Constable to account to ensure that her officers are out and doing everything they can to reduce crime in hotspot locations.

“With additional funding secured by my Office from the government’s Hotspot Response Fund, we have been able to further bolster Wiltshire Police’s efforts with additional resources to target the anti-social behaviour and serious violence in some of the worst affected areas in Wiltshire and Swindon. Together with the police and other partners, like Swindon Borough Council, we are ensuring those using our night-time economy – especially women and girls – have safer experiences.”

Each Walk and Talk should last around 30 minutes and will be held quarterly throughout Wiltshire.

You can also report feeling unsafe in public spaces via the StreetSafe app, completely anonymously.

View our first short video here.