Chief Constable fortnightly update to the Police and Crime Commissioner

Dear Police and Crime Commissioner, Philip Wilkinson,

Yesterday, Wiltshire Police was placed in the top tier for performance in a national, independent assessment.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) confirmed that we had been placed in Tier 1 of their new Policing Performance System.

HMICFRS has stated that, whilst they may have minor, mitigated concerns about the performance of our Force, we are making progress and continuous improvements. They have confirmed that no further action or intervention is required from the performance system at this time.

Forces are assigned a tier (which is from Tier 1 to Tier 4) based on current performance, the extent of national support required and the expected level of interaction with the support and intervention process. 

Our communities can read more from the HMICFRS on this here and my full statement can be found here.

This is a truly significant day for Wiltshire Police and is testament to our relentless focus on continually improving the service we provide to our communities.

Joining Wiltshire Police as Chief Constable in 2023 remains the proudest day of my career. However, I joined a Force that was in the Engage process with the worst HMICFRS PEEL grading in the country.

I knew that the incredible teams in Wiltshire Police could drive improvements and enhance the service our communities receive.

To now be in be in a cohort of Forces in the top category for our performance is incredible.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank every single officer, police staff member and volunteer for their focus, dedication and determination in improving our service each and every day.

I would also like to thank you, Commissioner, your teams, our partner agencies and our communities for their continued support and challenge whilst we worked hard on delivering these improvements.

Today’s performance grading comes just months after the latest Police Efficiency, Effectiveness and Legitimacy (PEEL) report from HMICFRS which specifically highlighted stronger performance in neighbourhood policing, emergency response, preventing crime and use of powers.

That report showed no regression in any of the areas inspectors graded in the previous inspection (published in 2024) with two areas – responding to the public and using powers fairly – seeing our grades improve. Our use of powers grade increased by two gradings. 

However, our gradings for investigating crime and safeguarding children and adults at risk of harm remained static at ‘requiring improvement’. We are working hard to rapidly improve this.

You can read more about our PEEL inspection here.

I truly hope that both independent HMICFRS reports reassure our communities that we are absolutely committed to Keeping Wiltshire Safe and are always seeking to improve the standard of service they receive. 

Part of continuing our improvement journey is our ability to predict, map and respond to peaks in demand for our services.

The summer months are always a busy period for police forces, but we are already seeing unprecedented levels of demand in Wiltshire.

In June this year, we recorded over 12,000 incident logs - a 7.4% increase compared to the previous year and a 9.1% increase on 999 call volumes. 

During Saturday 27th June, we experienced 578 calls to 999 – this is the highest volume of emergency calls in a 24-hour period we have ever recorded.

As the summer continues, there are some ways that our communities can help to reduce the demand on our control room so that those most in need of our help get it as quickly as possible:

We will always be here when our communities need us the most.

Finally, I know that many in our communities will be gearing up to watch the World Cup final this Sunday.

In addition to increasing patrols at key points during the tournament, we have also focused our resources on the crime types that we know are, sadly, likely to increase during a significant sporting event.

These include drink and drug driving offences and domestic abuse related crimes.

Data from the timespan of the last Euros tournament in 2024, showed that 11% of all reports to Wiltshire Police were for drink driving and 22% were for domestic abuse. Both are abhorrent crimes which can have life changing consequences.

As part of our public awareness campaign, we’ve issued this video showing the immediate interactions between our officers and those caught drink driving in our county.

More information, support and advice connected to our campaign, can be found on our website here.

I hope everyone continues to enjoy the summer safely and please do contact us if you need our help.

Kindest regards to you,

Catherine Roper

Chief Constable, Wiltshire Police