Dear Police and Crime Commissioner, Philip Wilkinson,
The festive period gives us all time to reflect on the challenges, opportunities and successes we’ve encountered across the year.
2024 has been a significant year for Wiltshire Police – both in terms of the improvements we’ve made to our service and some of the difficulties we’ve had to navigate.
I wanted to share some of my reflections with you and our communities.
Our improvement journey:
• In May, HMICFRS confirmed that Wiltshire Police was to be taken out of the Engage phase of its performance monitoring process due to the significant improvements we had made
• We were placed into the Engage process, which offers enhanced support to Forces requiring it, in 2022 after HMICFRS graded the force as ‘inadequate’ in our ability to respond to the public, protect vulnerable people, and strategic planning. It further described the Force as ‘requiring improvement’ in a number of other areas.
• Across 2023 and 2024 we’ve made fundamental changes to how we operate, including;
1. The introduction of a new policing model which created dedicated neighbourhood teams ensuring increased visibility and engagement with our communities
2. Significant improvements to the quality of our investigations
3. Increased governance around how we monitor our performance and map our demand
4. Publication of a three-year strategic plan outlining our key priorities and deliverables
• This programme of work has resulted in an enhanced service to victims - from shorter 999 and 101 call answer times, safeguarding more people by identifying vulnerability at the earliest opportunity, better quality investigations and an improvement in the number of justice outcomes
• In their August report to us, HMICFRS confirmed that, of the eight areas graded in 2022, none were now in the inadequate category (compared to 3 in 2022) and our gradings had
improved in six of these areas. They also noted improvements in the two which remained in the requiring improvement category • I remain resolute in maintaining a focus on continuous improvement and the journey towards the force being rated as ‘outstanding’.
Reestablishment of our Neighbourhood Policing Teams:
• As outlined above, a core component of improving the service we provide was placing a stronger focus on visible, neighbourhood policing and better, local engagement with our communities
• Our communities now have improved access to their Neighbourhood Policing Teams with each one having a dedicated page on our website which provides the names and contact details of every member of each team, outlines their local priorities, crime levels in that area, local news and details of upcoming meetings and events
• We have published a set of Community Commitments – clearly outlining what engagement our communities can expect to receive from our Neighbourhood Policing Teams. This will continue to improve the consistency of service we provide and allows communities to hold us accountable for the service they receive from us.
Listening to our people:
• Ensuring our officers, staff and volunteers are well engaged and connected to our organisational journey is fundamental to us continuing to improve the service we provide
• To that end, across the year, I have met with nearly every single member of Wiltshire Police either through 14 in person forums, 8 leaders’ events, holding an online chat with the entire organisation every three weeks, monthly meetings with senior leaders and dropping into various team meetings across the force. I have also joined dozens of patrols across the county and attended numerous Area Board meetings with our local policing colleagues
• This has given me the opportunity to articulate my expectations and to reiterate the standards of professional behaviour that we require but, equally, it allows colleagues to feed back to me and my Chief Officer Group with ideas and solutions to help shape our organisation and improve the service we provide to our communities
• I have been so enthused by the level of engagement and passion colleagues had in supporting the Force with our improvement journey – with a palpable commitment across the force to continue providing improved policing services.
The Dawn Sturgess Inquiry:
• Earlier this month, the open, public hearings for The Dawn Sturgess Inquiry, which began in Salisbury on October 14, came to an end
• At the very heart of this Inquiry is Dawn, her family and friends and they remain in the forefront of our minds at this time
• From the outset of the Inquiry, I assured you and our communities that Wiltshire Police is fully committed to learning any further lessons arising throughout this process
• All previously identified learning has been implemented across the Force and, last week, we dedicated our Organisational Learning Board to capturing all of the lessons we identified throughout each day of the hearings. Each lesson has been assigned an owner and a clear plan for implementation
• We will also fully accept all the formal recommendations from the Inquiry when the Chair’s report is published next year
• The actions of all first responders involved in the two Novichok incidents have been rightly scrutinised by the Inquiry so we must remain open to evolving our partnership approach to the incidents posing the most significant threats to the safety of the public.
Clare’s Law failures:
• After identifying failures in our service under the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (known as Clare’s Law) in October 2023, I commissioned an urgent review of 3,778 applications made to us between April 2015 and August 2023
• We established a dedicated of team of 45 officers who had risk assessed each application by January 2024 and, by May, all detailed reviews of applications requiring them were completed with appropriate action being taken
• A total of 33 failures were identified - two which may have prevented someone from being harmed if they had been assessed properly from the outset
• Whilst I hope our communities will take some reassurance from the robust action we took to review all applications submitted to us in the identified timeframe, we should never forget that people were put at risk due to our failures
• We let people down and this is completely unacceptable. I remain appalled that this ever happened. We’ve put measures in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again
• I do hope this case serves to illustrate my unwavering commitment to transparently and impartially reviewing the service we provide and to make meaningful change to benefit our communities.
Girlguiding and Scout Challenge Badge launched:
• Earlier this year, we launched our first ever Wiltshire Police Challenge Badge for Girlguides and Scouts
• The interactive days for over 100 young people and their leaders were held at HQ aimed to test the Guides’ and Scouts' problem-solving, teamwork, and leadership skills, while providing valuable insights into the critical role police officers and staff play in keeping the communities safe
• As a Guide leader and Child and Young People NPCC (National Police Chief Council) lead, I was thrilled to hold these events which provided a fantastic opportunity to foster the idea of public service with younger members of our communities. These are now a fundamental part of the Wiltshire Police calendar.
Giving back:
• Over the course of the year our officers and staff have contributed to a number of local and national charity causes that provide vital support to our communities and the wider policing family
• Our Control Room colleagues have raised over £650 for various charities through a series of non-uniform days
• In July, a team of officers and staff from across the force cycled 180 miles as part of the Police Unity Tour raising funds to support the families of police officers killed in service
• Teams of officers and staff have raised thousands of pounds for Men’s charities and local hospice care as part of Movember
• The Wiltshire Police branch of Unison recently organised a Christmas toy collection appeal to support children in our local hospitals this Christmas
• The force is also donating 20 laptops to local charities this Christmas.
I look forward to sustaining our onward improvement, becoming a police force which provides an outstanding service to our communities and, above all, upholds our commitment to Keeping Wiltshire Safe as we move into 2025.
I also wanted to recognise the sacrifices that many of our officers, staff and volunteers face at this time of year with many working over the holidays. I wanted to publicly thank each of them for their dedication and service over the festive period.
Finally, whilst recognising that not everyone celebrates Christmas, I hope this winter time offers a moment for everyone to pause and share time with loved ones. For those that do celebrate it, I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.
Warmest regards,
Catherine Roper
Chief Constable, Wiltshire Police