A police vehicle had its tyres slashed at a ‘dangerous’ car meet in Calne.
Officers were called to Porte Marsh Industrial Estate at around 8.40pm on Monday night (28 August), where a group of around 100 people had gathered with cars.
Calne and Chippenham Neighbourhood Teams, along with officers from Chippenham Response and a Road Policing Unit attended the area following reports of ongoing dangerous driving.
Inspector Pete Foster said: “Whilst we do not wish to prevent people meeting up with like-minded friends and enthusiasts, the sort of behaviour which took place on Monday night was unacceptable.
“One of our police vehicles had its tyres slashed during the incident and there were a number of dangerous manoeuvres and incidents of anti-social behaviour witnessed.
“Our officers are here to keep the public safe and we rely on our vehicles to respond quickly and efficiently to emergency situations and sadly, this mindless behaviour has left us short of a response vehicle to carry out our role.
“Fortunately, the gathering dispersed within approximately an hour and there were no serious collisions, however, the driving behaviours of those involved were completely unacceptable and we will be continuing with our enquiries to identify those involved in causing damage to one of our vehicles which has taken it off the roads for urgent repair work.
“We want to keep our roads as safe as possible for all road users and will continue to target those whose standard of driving falls below that expected of a competent driver.”
This incident followed a similar incident in the same area last Saturday (19 August) where a large number of vehicles gathered – however, on this occasion, officers engaged positively with those in attendance and there were no offences or anti-social behaviour witnessed.
PCSO Mark Cook, of the Calne Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “Vehicle related anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated in Calne and we would urge anyone who witnesses such behaviour to contact us via 101 or 999 in an emergency.”
