Dear Resident,

The Neighbourhood Policing Week of Action officially ended at 00:01 hours on Monday 30 June, and what a week it has been!

What is Neighbourhood Policing Week of Action?

Our aim throughout the week has been to highlight to you, the residents of Swindon, all of the work that your three Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NPTs) do. In total, the teams have carried out 29 engagement visits, which have included attending Armed Forces Day, drop-in events at specific locations with the mobile police station, school talks, fêtes, and community clubs.  

What have my local teams been doing?

There have been a number of dedicated police operations throughout the week. On Monday, we carried out a roads policing operation with our Roads Safety Unit and Roads Policing Unit colleagues. This saw a staggering 250 people caught speeding, several tickets being issued for other traffic offences, and a number of vehicles being seized. 

Tuesday and Wednesday saw joint operations with the Immigration Team, which resulted in seven arrests. Thursday saw the launch of Operation Jetsom in Swindon, which is our Force-wide targeted campaign towards the use of e-scooters and illegal e-bikes. This saw nearly 40 people educated on the use of e-scooters and e-bikes, as well as additional engagement with local youth clubs.

We carried out an operation targeting the sale of illegal vapes on Friday in conjunction with the Swindon Police Cadets. The teams visited eight shops and found a number of them were selling illegal vapes, whilst all shops failed to conform completely to best practice. Towards the end of the week, we carried out Night-Time Economy operations in the Town Centre and Old Town on Friday and Saturday night to target sexual predators and prevent sexual offences from being committed. 

This has all been done by a relatively small team of officers who form part of our NPTs.

What is neighbourhood policing? 

I firmly believe that Neighbourhood Policing can be misunderstood, with perceptions of a Heartbeat era. However, the very nature of neighbourhood policing has evolved with the times and serial offenders, organised crime, criminal exploitation, drug warrants and modern slavery all feature within our workloads, along with the traditional community engagement. Whilst today I am highlighting the work the teams have been doing as part of the national week of action, the fact remains that your local NPT is focusing on these issues on a weekly basis. They are working hard with competing demands against an ever-changing landscape.

As the Chief Inspector in charge of all NPTs in Swindon, I remain proud of the hard work, commitment, skills, and dedication that my officers show. My officers and staff will continue to be out and about whether rain, snow, shine or heatwave, and we hope to see you too.

Find out more

If you would like to find out more about what your local NPT has been doing and details for upcoming engagement events so you can meet your local team, please visit the YourArea section of our website. To learn more about the out of sight work our NPTs complete across Wiltshire, please visit the Neighbourhood Policing in Action page on our website.

Chief Inspector Carly Nesbitt

Chief Inspector of Swindon Neighbourhood Policing