Dear Police and Crime Commissioner, Philip Wilkinson,

There has been much public debate this week regarding police conduct and the level of sanctions handed down to officers in gross misconduct cases.

Whilst it would not be appropriate for me to comment on cases outside of Wiltshire Police, I thought it was important to share my expectations and the current landscape within our Force.

I expect the highest level of professionalism, care and diligence from each of my officers, staff and volunteers. Where this falls short, it is right that robust and timely enquiries take place to ascertain why and, crucially, what impact this might have had on our service to the public.

I also think it is imperative to have a transparent and accountable approach to misconduct within policing – the public rightly expect and deserve to know what action we are taking when individuals have let them down.

To that end, I wanted to share the latest misconduct data for Wiltshire Police:

- In the past 12 months we have held a combined total of 33 gross misconduct hearings (for police officers) and meetings (for police staff) compared with 12 in previous year - a 175% increase year on year

- These related to 17 police officers, 3 PCSOs, 2 Special Constables and 11 members of police staff

- This resulted in 20 members of the organisation being dismissed (or would have been dismissed had they still been serving) - 10 police officers, 2 members of the Special Constabulary and 8 members of police staff

- We currently have 24 live gross misconduct cases in force (relating to 24 individuals)

- There are also 2 live gross misconduct investigations being independently managed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC)

- 6 staff/officers are currently suspended from the force

- 5 staff/officers have been temporarily redeployed from their roles.

New rules were introduced last month which have created a presumption of dismissal for proven gross misconduct. This means there is a clear expectation that officers will be sacked unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Our communities can find out more about our misconduct processes, see upcoming hearings and read misconduct hearing outcomes on this section of our website.

I want to stress that the individuals under investigation in these misconduct cases represent the minority of those working within Wiltshire Police.

By stark contrast, this week we held our Wiltshire Police Awards ceremony where we celebrated those who are dedicated to improving our service to the public.

These included:

- PC Dave Thompson, PC Adam Gutowski, and PC Ben Lambert who were recognised for their life-saving actions during an incident in September 2024, at an address in Swindon. Their decisive and coordinated response successfully revived a man who was found unresponsive and there is no doubt that the actions of these officers prevented a loss of life that day

- ACC Liz Coles who was recognised for her inspirational leadership in establishing an innovative, year-long development initiative aimed at colleagues from under-represented and minority groups.

We also recognised the incredible actions of members of the public whose efforts have been invaluable to supporting our investigations or victims of crime.

These included:

- Krystal Fishlock who was honoured for her courage, public-spiritedness, and invaluable assistance to Wiltshire Police. On March 6, Krystal intervened when a man tried to abduct a 17-year-old girl in Swindon town centre. Krystal offered to take the young woman to safety and then pursued the suspect on foot, which led to the offender being identified and arrested

- Carmella Carchedi, a Senior Project Worker for the Sex Worker Outreach Programme with The Nelson Trust. Through her dedication and interventions, Carmella has directly saved numerous lives—often in the most challenging of circumstances.

I would like to congratulate every person nominated and awarded at our ceremony. I would also like to acknowledge their loved ones – policing can be an extremely demanding career, and our support networks are key to enabling us to provide the best possible service.

I would also like to share some of the recent improvements we’ve seen within our contact centre.

Over the last year, we’ve invested significantly into ensuring that calls for our service are answered as quickly and efficiently as possible.

This has included increasing the number of staff on duty at key times, retaining a higher number of operators which has increased the number of experienced staff within the contact centre and ensuring staff are trained to deal with both 101 (non-emergency) and 999 calls.

In an average week, our call centre receives approximately 10,000 calls from the public and takes 500 online reports or referrals.

The national target is to answer 90% of 999 emergency calls in less than 10 seconds. Wiltshire Police have been at or close to that figure consistently since the end of last year -averaging 89.8% across the last 7 months.

National figures released last week, also show that in March it took, on average, 5 seconds for us to answer 101 calls compared to 16 seconds in April last year.

After 101 calls are initially answered, they are passed to our Crime Recording and Incident Bureau (CRIB) for further investigation. The average wait time between the 101 call being initially answered and then picked up by the CRIB is between 5-8 minutes.

We are also surveying those people who abandon their calls to us via 101 before we answer them to understand why. Of the current sample size, 30% of responders said they either went online for our help or called back.

It is only by understanding these behaviours that we can implement real, meaningful change to improve how the public can better access our services.

As ever, I will continue to update you and our communities on this progress.

Finally, this is national Volunteers Week, and I know you and our Chief of Corporate Services John Derryman hosted our volunteers in celebration event to mark their contributions this morning. I wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to all our volunteers and Special Constables for their efforts in supporting Wiltshire Police and your office - we could not provide our service without them.

Kindest regards,

Catherine Roper

Chief Constable, Wiltshire Police