Neighbourhood Policing Teams

It has been acknowledged that the people of Wiltshire have always valued a uniform presence on the streets of their towns and villages. The Police responded by giving officers a geographic responsibility for specific areas, and have made significant progress in the provision of identifiable community beat officers who are able to establish links and build up local knowledge within the community.

Nevertheless alive to the reality of the demands on all Police Officers, there are many matters that Police Officers simply do not have the time to tackle. These are the sort of issues that are now the new domain of Police Community Support Officers introduced in spring 2003, issues that on their own can be minor in nature but, can culminate in creating real difficulties and real fears for some people.

Examples of some of the work they carry out include dealing with and reporting graffiti, vandalism or damaged street furniture, reporting suspicious activity, deterring juvenile nuisance, verbal abuse and intimidating behaviour.

Wiltshire Constabulary view the primary purpose of the Police Community Support Officer is to improve the quality of life in the community and offer greater public reassurance. In support of regular police officers they work within a targeted patrol area to provide a visible and accessible uniformed presence. They act as the 'eyes and ears' of their police colleagues observing and reporting instances occurring during their patrols.

The government has embarked on a major exercise of introducing NPT within the whole country by April 2008. Initially 25% of the funding was to be found by local partner’s organisations including Town, Parish and District councils.

During summer 2006, Wiltshire Police agreed to bring forward the time when all NPT will be set up in Wiltshire to April 2007. In return, the need for external partners to find the additional 25% of the funding was removed as this is now to be provided by the Police Authority.

Here is the rollout plan for Police Community Support Officers. (MS Excel file, opens in new window). The West Wiltshire neighbourhood areas have a purple highlight.

More information can be found at the Wiltshire Police website.