WESTBURY is expected to get more police officers and resources for neighbourhood policing following a reshuffle of Wiltshire Police’s community policing teams.
It was announced at Westbury Area Board on Thursday 5th December that Westbury area’s Community Policing Team inspector, Andy Fee, will be moving to the Trowbridge area, being replaced by Gill Hughes.
Kevin Harmsworth will also be taking the role as Westbury, Warminster, Tisbury and Mere’s community policing sergeant.
At the meeting Andy Fee said, “There is going to be a real drive and investment into community policing. As you are all aware there are plans to uplift in police numbers. This means there is a drive to put more police officers into neighbourhoods and I anticipate down the line, more resources going into neighbourhood policing too.
“It has been a pleasure to work in this area, it is a great area with some really good, fantastic, work being carried out by this team. Your PCs, PCSOs and local crime investigators are working really hard to keep people safe and safeguarding vulnerable victims from domestic abuse and from crime in general. The PCSOs are doing their level best to get into the communities to identify any issues that are affecting the communities.”
Kevin Harmsworth then identified the three current priorities of the officers in Westbury.
He said, “There has been an uprise in shopliftings in the town on the run up to Christmas so we are looking to get out pro-actively, be visible around the shops and prevent it happening or deter it.
“We will use target hardening strategies to make shoplifting less of an attractive opportunity for opportunists and we will be working with repeat offenders.
“Rural crime/heritage crime is also prominent for example, lead theft in area and county. We recently had success in Devizes catching people stealing lead from a church roof. Again, we will be promoting target hardening improving alarm systems, using smart water and other techniques.
“Finally anti-social behaviour. We will be targeting those individuals who are on the fringes of groups that may start to turn their behaviour to anti-social and then verging into crime. Looking to work with these people through early intervention programmes where our PCSOs will link with the individual, meeting with them, in the hope to change their course/direction to something more positive therefore reducing anti-social behaviour in the area.”
Wiltshire Police said, “We are making some changes to our community policing teams and moving some officers about to better meet demand in our different patches and improve community engagement.
“It is not an overnight change but over the next few months, you will see some different faces in your local teams and the areas they cover may change slightly.
“As ever, please continue to contact us via 101 or 999 in an emergency or if a crime is in progress.
“You can now also report some crime via our website – www.wiltshire.police.uk/article/603/Report ”
