Wiltshire Police has launched a campaign to help reduce the demand on local policing teams as they preempt an increase in anti-social behaviour and violence crimes.
The Summer Demand campaign aims to continue the conversation with our communities about how they can best help us over the summer months. It will run through August and September and will focus on a number of issues including anti-social behaviour, public order and violence against the person, hate crime and sexual assault.
Community Policing Team Wiltshire Hub Superintendent David Minty said: “Traditionally over the summer months we see an increase in particular crime types as the weather gets warmer and people spend more time socialising with others.
“The lifting of lockdown restrictions have already heightened some of the demands we see, particularly those related to public order and violence against the person.
“We want to work with the public and our partners to not only reduce this demand on the police, but to prevent crimes from happening in the first place.
“We will be using the campaign as an opportunity to signpost people to the relevant agencies and organisations, as well as highlighting some of the issues that take up most of our time.
“We want to ensure the public understand how they can help us reduce this demand and when they should call us on 101 or 999, and when they should be contacting our partner agencies.”
Community Policing Team Swindon Hub Superintendent Adrian Burt added: “As part of the campaign, we’ll be telling the public more about their community policing teams and the demands they are facing on a daily basis, as well as ways the public can help them.
“For example, during the school summer holidays, we often see an increase in anti-social behaviour so we will be engaging with the local authorities and parents to try and reduce calls of this nature into our control room.
“It is vital that we continue to provide an excellent service to the public but we need their help, as well as the help of partner agencies, to try and assist with the ever increasing demands placed on us.
“Public safety is our main priority and we hope that this campaign not only gives an insight into the demands on modern day policing in the warmer months, but also helps to better inform our communities about staying safe this summer, and effectively reporting issues in their communities.”
