A consultation survey to shape the future of policing in Wiltshire has been launched by Philip Wilkinson, the county's Police and Crime Commissioner today (Friday, 5 July).
Mr Wilkinson said: “From my perspective as your representative in Wiltshire and Swindon holding Wiltshire Police to account, this ‘Use Your Voice’ consultation survey is incredibly important and will help me to ensure that the priorities and plans that I set and define in my new Police and Crime Plan are focused and prioritized on your concerns and needs”.
Use Your Voice will enable residents to have their say on different aspects of policing, including which areas of policing are most important to them, their perception of crime rates over the past three years and how they think Wiltshire Police could improve the service it provides.
This will then inform and set out the PCC’s revised priorities, and how they will be delivered throughout Wiltshire while reflecting and meeting the needs of residents and communities, in Making Wiltshire Safer: Police and Crime Plan 2024-2029.
Mr Wilkinson continued: “I’m pleased to announce the launch of my Use Your Voice survey to hear what really matters to the public. We first launched this survey in 2021 when I was first elected as Police and Crime Commissioner. As time has moved on, and our crime demand changes along with the policing service, we now need to revise those priorities within the initial plan and set the policing blueprint for the next five years.
“Listening to the views and opinions of Wiltshire’s residents will mean the Police and Crime Plan is directly informed by them and the policing priorities have been directly influenced by them as well.
“It is crucially important that all our communities get a say and a chance to use their voice for good. Don’t think that I don’t want to hear your views – if it matters to you, it matters to me.
“Since I set the last Police and Crime Plan we have seen some great improvements, including being taken out of ‘special measures’ following the most recent HMICFRS inspection.
“This represented a substantial moment in our onward journey towards our aspiration to be an outstanding police force, and Chief Constable Catherine Roper’s vision and leadership has meant changes are being delivered at pace.
“However, I know there is lots more to be done to continue on our improvement journey, and I specifically want to ensure more work is done around tackling rural crime and combatting the organised crime groups, alongside a more specific focus on business and retail crime.
“Through working collaboratively across the south-west through Operation Ragwort, I want to ensure our rural communities know that our approach is intelligence led and they can be confident that their concerns are being dealt with robustly.”
The Use Your Voice survey is open from today (Friday 5 July) and will remain open until Friday 2 August. All feedback will be analysed and used to inform the draft plan.
Members of the public will be able to download the draft plan from the PCC website and provide feedback in early September. The revised plan will replace Making Wiltshire Safer: Police and Crime Plan 2021-2025 after it is presented at Wiltshire’s Police and Crime Panel meeting in November.
To fill out the survey, please click here.
